Four Years
by Snow Cloak
Summary: Being rewritten and republished as, "The Chronicles of Arceus, Book 1: Genesis".
1. The Wound Time Cannot Heal

**Hello everyone, this is my first story on FF. I've been reading around for a bit and decided to try my hand at writing one myself. However, this is my first story so I'd appreciate it if you refrained from flaming about how bad it is and instead gave me tips on how to improve it. Thanks :)**

"It's been four years since he left, hasn't it?"

The others turned to see who had spoken.

"Brock… Please don't bring that up… You know how much it hurts us all, even now", a voice replied, clearly understanding what Brock had meant by 'he'.

"I understand Max, I feel it too, but don't you think we should move on already? It's been four years since he disappeared and we're still moping whenever his name is mentioned", Brock replied, while gazing into the starlit sky above the group.

The group of people lying on the top of the grassy hill, staring up at the sky, was rather large. There were three guys and three girls in the group, and they were all gazing at the beautiful starry sky, all seemingly thinking about the same thing.

"I know what you mean Brock, but some of us just can't move on so easily, if you know what I mean. Ash helped all of us a lot of and if we hadn't met him, we probably wouldn't be where we are now", Dawn said.

Misty, Max, Brock, May and even Gary inadvertently flinched at the mention of his name. Dawn, noticing this, quickly apologized and they went back to thinking, each in a world of their own.

'_I just wish I could see him again, even if only to see that he is safe. Why did you leave us, your friends, Ash? It was a rough time for you but yet you refused to allow us to help you through it…' _Brock thought.

The group of friends normally didn't all travel together, as large groups were often annoying and slow, but there was a very good reason for traveling together now. They had all been sitting around at home for a while, unsure about what to do, when Professor Oak notified everyone about a competition that was being held in Kanto, at the indigo plateau.

The whole group had been at Pallet the day before to celebrate Gary's victory in the Orange League.

What was interesting, however, was the fact that the whole group was participating. In the previous leagues that they had travelled to, only Max entered, mainly because the others preferred to watch, not battle.

Max had become a pretty good trainer. When he began his journey, he managed to place in the 32 in the Hoenn league, even managing to overcome his father to get a badge. Then, he managed to place in the top 16 in the Kanto league and finally placed in the top 16 again in the Johto league.

He owed most of it to Ash, however. The raven-haired, energetic boy had really influenced Max's battle style, and he would be lieing if he said that he didn't learn a lot while travelling with him.

The competition itself was a rather important one. It was called the "Tournament of Arceus", and was held only once every 50 years. There were no requirements for entering, besides owning Pokémon, so naturally, each tournament was filled with so many people, the venues at the Indigo Plateau couldn't house them all and some had to sleep outside.

It was a competition with rookies and elites alike, and even the champions participated.

_One week later_

"Yeah! I'm ready to win this thing!" Max shouted as he pumped his fist into the air.

"Max, you do realize that this competition will have the best of the best participating, right? There's no way you'll beat one of the elites!" May replied, annoyed at his brothers constant boasting about how he was going to win.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, they may be good, but that's what I've trained for, to be better than good!" Max said with a smirk on his face.

The others sighed, knowing that arguing would be useless.

"Max, you know you can be so stubborn sometimes! Almost as stubborn as As…." May said, trailing off as she realized what she was saying.

The group immediately stopped, their faces obviously revealing the pain inside them as they were reminded of that name.

"We need to keep moving guys." Gary said, breaking the silence.

As they approached the end of the path, they finally arrived at the magnificent Indigo Plateau, the site of the annual Indigo League, and soon to be the site of the TOA (Tournament of Arceus).

The Indigo Plateau was a stunning sight to behold. The stadium itself was massive, and the town around was quite big for a town that was built only to support the stadium. Like most towns in the Pokémon world, it was quite green, and looked like it was one with nature.

The group entered the main building in the area, the general reception hall.

"Hmm… According to this guide book to the TOA, we will need to register our name and Pokémon here, to be entered into the competition." Brock stated, while looking at a book titled "Your guide to the Tournament of Arceus"

The doors to the hall burst open rather abruptly as a girl around the age of 16 ran into the room.

"Excuse me, is this where I register for the tournament? Oh please tell me I'm not late!" She said to the receptionist, panting and clearly showing signs of exhaustion.

"Yes this is, but may I ask why you're in such a rush? You have until next week to enter and the tournament has an unlimited amount of spaces for entrants." The receptionist clearly replied.

"WHAT?" The girl shouted, "YOU MEAN I RAN ALL THIS WAY PANICKING BECAUSE I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO BE LATE FOR ENTRY FOR NOTHING?"

Gary walked up to the girl for a reason none of the others understood and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, Leaf, is that you?"

**I hope you enjoyed that. I'm not sure when I can get another chapter up but hopefully it will be tomorrow. I plan on putting Ash into the next chapter though! **


	2. The Return

"That's enough for today, guys."

A large group of Pokémon that had apparently been training stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the sound, seeing Ash, their master, and cheered.

Ash, tired after the intense training they did each day, walked over to the edge of the coast, staring out into the sparkling blue sea, faithful yellow buddy on his shoulder.

"It's been four years since we left, hasn't it Pikachu?" He said changing his view to the starry sky, not knowing that far away, their friends were having the exact same conversation.

"PikaPi Pikachu Pika", the yellow rodent said, with a questioning look on its face.

"No Pikachu, I don't regret leaving and I don't want to return now. This is my new life. The Ash Ketchum they knew is long dead."

"Chaaa", Pikachu sighed, knowing that attempting to talk some sense into his trainer and life-long friend would be useless, he had long ago retreated into a deep void of self-pity and darkness.

It wasn't that he was cruel or anything, it was just that he no longer cared about anything besides training. It seemed he was lifeless and no longer had a soul.

Everyone and everything he once had and knew had been long ago consumed and destroyed by the criminal organization known as Team Rocket, as payback for all the plans of theirs that he had ruined.

He had since trained all around the world. They had trained in the rough deserts of Orre, the snowy peak of Mt. Silver, travelled the Ocean, training on islands and had gone to places no one had ever heard of.

The two of them just stood there thinking for a while, the serenity of the sea and sky calming them. They had all the time in the world to think. There was nothing to distract them and on a remote island like this, the chance of someone finding them was next to zero.

Ash and his Pokémon friends had found this island to train on. It was perfect; free from human taint and far away from civilization.

The raven-haired boy had been training for four years now. Every day he would wake up, eat, and get back to training. The only company he had now was that of his family – his Pokémon. They were the only family he had left. His father had long ago abandoned him and his Mother…

Ash was snapped out of his trance as a loud sound was heard. He turned around and saw a black figure speeding towards the island, the air trailing behind it as it broke the sound barrier.

"Master! A Pokémon is approaching the island at a very high speed; its aura seems to be that of a Pidgeot's, with a human's aura on top of it." A blue, dog-like creature with spikes on its hands and chest transmitted to Ash through aura.

Ash rushed over to the spot that the Pidgeot seemed to be stopping at. He watched as his Pokémon surrounded the intruder, just as he had taught them to, in case any strangers happened to find the island.

The man that hopped off the Pidgeot seemed unperturbed at the large amount of glaring Pokémon surrounding him. He looked around before spotting Ash, and started walking towards him. He continued walking until he was only half a meter away.

He looked up at Ash and saw that the boy had changed a lot from the 10 year old boy that started his journey to become a Pokémon master 7 years ago. His hair was still messy and unkempt, but now was far longer. No longer was he a weak, skinny boy. Years of training had given him a strong, bulky look. However, possibly the most significant change, was his eyes. The warm, caring eyes that he once had were now replaced by cold, emotionless orbs that revealed nothing.

"Scott." Ash simply said.

"Is that anyways to greet an old friend?" Scott said, with a big smile on his face.

Ash simply grunted and said, "What do you want here and how did you find me? I thought I cut myself off from civilization."

"That you did, that you did. It took me weeks of hard work just to find you Ash, but I can see now it was definitely worth it. Judging by how strong your Pokémon look, you are one strong trainer now." Scott replied, still with his trademark smile on his face.

"Anyways, the reason I'm here is to tell you about a challenge I think you'll be interested in."

Ash nodded and said, "I'm listening."

"It's called the Tournament of Arceus and it's only hosted once every 50 years to honour Arceus. Seeing as how famous it is and how rarely it's hosted, powerful trainers love to go there to test their strength. The best of the best will be there Ash, it'll be the toughest challenge you've had but I assure you you'll enjoy it." Scott explained.

The trainer simply looked to his Pokémon and said, "Well, I have been away from competitive battling for a while now. I guess I should enter. Do you guys think we can do it?"

All the Pokémon cheered.

Ash had all his Pokémon with him right now. Looking at them all, he saw Venosaur, Kingler, Muk, Tauros, Snorlax, Heracross, Meganium, Typhlosion, Totodile, Noctowl, Donphan, Swellow, Sceptile, Crawdaunt, Torkoal, Glalie, Staraptor, Torterra, Infernape, Floatzel, Primeape, Charizard, Blastoise, Pidgeot, Lapras and Gliscor.

He had found new Pokémon though. He now also had a Lucario and a Scizor. Though, he also had two extremely powerful Pokémon with him. They hadn't joined him for long but had easily become two of his strongest Pokémon on his team. Thinking about how he met them made him smile internally.

All of his Pokémon had evolved to their final stage of evolution (Except Pikachu of course!), but for some reason, Totodile refused to evolve. Perhaps a dancing Feraligatr wouldn't look so… normal?

Charizard had found him somehow, perhaps knowing where he was through their close bond, and flew all the way from the Charific Valley to be reunited with him. Squirtle had done similar, but had instead had Officer Jenny bring him. Lapras had even come all the way from the Orange Islands!

All the Pokémon Ash had caught had trained with him over the four years (Except Butterfree, who Ash had assumed was dead. Bug Pokémon usually didn't live very long in the wild) and had thus become a very deadly group of Pokémon, all ready to battle to the end for their trainer.

"I think you have your answer then, Scott." The smiling trainer said.

A certain raven-haired trainer with a yellow rodent on his shoulder was standing on a grassy green hill overlooking the town of Pallet.

"I guess we're home. The place sure hasn't changed, even after all these years. I guess we should go to Professor Oak's lab, it's not like we have anywhere else to stay." Ash said to Pikachu, staring over at his hometown.

"Pikachu Pi!"

Walking up to Professors lab he thought, _'Well, now or never I guess. If I reveal myself to the world, there'll be no going back to the peaceful, solitary life I had before. I suppose it's time for me to return anyways. It's been four years, after all.'_

The door to the Professor's lab opened, and in front of him stood Tracey.

"Hello, Is there something you need?" The Pokémon Watcher asked.

Ash didn't say anything and simply removed his hood, revealing his face to the person in front of him.

Tracey's eyes widened as he saw who it was, and he ran off shouting, "HE'S BACK PROFESSOR! HE'S FINALLY BACK!"

Ash raised his eyebrow as he saw Tracey running around the room shouting, and sat down on a nearby chair, watching the display with amusement.

Professor Oak finally heard Tracey and came down. When he saw Ash, he smiled and ran up to him, taking him into a hug while saying, "Ash my boy, your back! After all these years you've returned!" Ash didn't return the hug, but didn't push the old man away, merely accepting it.

The two of them, recovering from the initial shock of seeing someone for the first time in four years, sat down with him.

"It's not that we aren't happy to see you Ash, but why have you returned? When you left you made it quite clear that you probably would be gone for much longer than you have been gone." Oak asked, even though he thought he already knew the answer.

"I'm sure you've heard of the Tournament of Arceus. Scott found me and told me about it, so I decided to return early and enter the competition."

"I don't believe it! Ash Ketchum is back! Wait till I tell the others!" Tracey continued with his crazy outburst.

"You will not tell the others I have returned." Ash said coldly, stunning Oak and Tracey for a moment with the lack of emotion in the sentence.

The watcher turned around and look at him strangely, "Don't you want to reunite with your friends? They all miss you a lot. After you disappeared, no one did anything but sit around and mope for at least a month! Max even stopped training when he heard about your disappearance!"

"No. I don't want to reunite with them. Not yet at least. I threw away my old life when I left, I don't think I can return to it that easily." Ash said with a deadly look on his face.

He sighed and continued, "I really miss them, I really do, but it's been too long. I'm no longer the same energetic boy that they once loved. There's no way they would even recognize me now."

"Don't worry Ash; I'm sure they'll see that you're still the same person deep inside. They're your friends Ash, it's not like they'll hate you for changing. Anyways, it's a coincidence that you arrived today to enter the Tournament of Arceus, the others just left yesterday." The Pokémon Professor said.

"Aren't you and Tracey going then? If it's so famous, I don't see a reason not to go." Ash asked, with a puzzled look on his face.

"Sorry Ash, but I won't be going there. I'm far too old to go but I'll cheer you on from Pallet. Although, Tracey will be going, but he had to clear up a few things, but he's leaving today. Say, why don't you two travel together?"

Ash simply shrugged and said, "Why not?"


	3. It's Leaf!

**Thanks for the reviews everyone! It's nice to know some people enjoy what I'm writing :D. However, Nauran, I'll give you a special mention. I am only just starting off writing, so I figured writing something that had been done before would be a better start than thinking of a brand new idea. Seriously, if you don't like it, no one is going to force you to read it. Also, If you were wondering why I used Leaf in my story (She's not commonly used), It was because we basically know nothing about her, except her appearance, which gives me a clean slate to work off, without having to think hard to get an appearance xD**

"Hey, Leaf, is that you?"

The girl turned around, surprised.

"Huh? Oh, hey Gary! Long time no see!" The energetic girl replied.

"Nice to see you too Leaf." The enigmatic trainer replied.

"It's a coincidence that I'm meeting you here, out of all places. Are you entering the tournament too?" Leaf asked.

"Well usually I don't participate in Pokémon battles now, but I decided to make an exception this time. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot." He said, turning to his friends, "Meet my friends, Max, May, Dawn, Brock and Misty." Gary explained, introducing his friends.

The group all greeted the girl and looked at Gary questioningly.

"Oh yeah, this is Leaf. She was one of my good friends back in Pallet when we were just children. Along with… Errr, 'You-know-who', we were really close friends." Gary said, introducing his childhood friend.

As the groups questioning looks cleared, it was Leaf's turn to look puzzled.

"Who do you mean by 'You-know-who'? Let's see… You must mean Ash! Where is he anyways, I don't see him here? I thought he would've loved to participate in a tournament this big and famous!" Leaf asked.

Everyone instantly froze, refusing to meet her gaze. They mumbled to each other something about having to go somewhere and do something, leaving Gary and Leaf alone in the room.

"Huh? Did I say something?" Leaf asked, with an even more puzzled look on her face.

Gary, only staying out of respect, sighed in what could be interpreted as pain or sorrow and replied, "You haven't heard have you?"

"Heard what? I haven't been anywhere near Kanto recently, I've been visiting the other far away regions, so I haven't really had much news of Kanto." The puzzled girl continued.

"He's gone…" Gary said, almost in a whisper.

Leaf could see the pained look on Gary's face, and decided to change the subject of discussion.

"Hey, why don't we go find your friends and go get something to eat! Oh no! I completely forgot! I still haven't registered for the tournament!" She shouted, clearly forgetting she still had plenty of time, and running off screaming something about 'oh no' and 'too late'.

Gary sweatdropped and the sight of her running around in circles, screaming random words and walked up to her asking, "Did you forget that you still have at least a week to register?"

The girl, obviously not hearing him, grabbed his hand and continued running around and panicking, dragging the poor boy behind him, as the rest of the group just watched the display with a look in-between embarrassed that they knew the two and amusement.

"Is she… usually like this Brock?" May asked.

"…I honestly have no idea." The wise breeder cautiously replied.

After finally managing to calm down Leaf, Gary sat down with his friends, clearly exhausted.

"Phew, I'm exhausted. Can we get a room already? I hope the place isn't full already. After we get rooms we can register for the tournament, I guess." Gary said.

The group, deciding not to comment on the scene that had just occurred, nodded in agreement, and the group went towards the Pokémon centre to find a room to stay in.

"Sorry, there are no more rooms available. I'm pretty sure the whole city is packed with people coming to participate or watch the tournament. You have to remember there'll be at least one thousand participants! You'll probably be able to camp out in the forest though." Nurse Joy said, with a look of pity on her face.

"Well guys, I don't think there's anything we can do. We'll have to camp out." Brock said.

"Aww man! I was hoping for a nice comfortable bed after all that travelling we did" Misty complained.

"Yeah me too! I can't get a good night's sleep out in the forest!" May and Dawn joined in.

The guys sighed, knowing that any attempt at arguing would be as useful as trying to cut down a tree with a blunt club.

'_I wonder where Leaf is going to stay… She'll probably stay out in the forest I guess. She must be used to it if she's done as much travelling as she says' _Gary thought to himself.

Before leaving the main hall to check the Pokémon centre, he had asked Leaf if she wanted to come with them, but she said she had to finish some things up before leaving, so they promised to keep in contact over the tournament and left.

'_I hope Ash is OK out there without his friends. I wonder if he's even alive anymore, the world is truly a cruel and harsh place. What am I thinking? Of course he's still alive! Hey! He might even come to the tournament, seeing as trainers from all around the world were coming together to battle. Yes! He'll be here!' Gary thought._

"YES! I JUST KNOW IT! HE'LL BE HERE!" Gary shouted, pumping his hand upward in a fist as he did.

The others looked at him and sweatdropped, wondering if a bit too much of Leaf had rubbed off on him in the short time after they had reunited.

"Oops, did I just say that out loud?" Gary said, clearly embarrassed at his outburst.

The group simply nodded.

"Crap…" Gary mumbled.

"So Ash, may I see your Pokémon? After all this time away I'm sure they've gotten much stronger." Samuel Oak inquired.

"Very well. You may." Ash said, taking out his Pokémon and releasing them into Professor Oak's backyard.

"Well, well. A very tough group of Pokémon. Of course, I expected no less. Hmm… I see a few fresh faces. Ahh, a Scizor and a Lucario? Very impressive."

"No… It can't be! How did you…" The bewildered Pokémon Professor asked as he looked over Ash's last two Pokémon.

Ash just smiled.

**Well, I was planning on writing more, but I guess I'll end it here. Also, I've been trying to improve the length of my stories. Tomorrow my goal will be 2000 words and I'll continue trying to build up to a decent length. **

**I hope you like how I portrayed Leaf, because I certainly did xD!**


	4. Arrogance

**Hello again! Time for chapter 4!**

**Just a small note, my goal for this chapter was 2000 words. As of the time I am writing this, I haven't started, so the end amount will be a surprise to me as well! I'm actually hoping to breach 3000 words, but I shouldn't expect too much! **

**I know last chapter I concentrated too much on Gary, but now I know why people don't usually write large groups, it's too easy for some of the characters to seem like they're not there. This time, I'll focus my writing on Max.**

**Rubius, I'm not sure yet. Like I said, I don't really have much experience with this kind of thing, so I'm not sure if I'll do it. **

"No… It can't be! How did you…" The bewildered Pokémon Professor asked as he looked over Ash's last two Pokémon.

Ash just smiled.

"I don't believe it! How did you find, let alone catch, the legendary Eon twins? This is astounding Ash! I knew you would be a great trainer, but catching TWO legendaries? That is one amazing accomplishment." The Professor continued.

"Hmph. It's not like I deserve any of that praise. I didn't find them, nor did I 'catch' them. They found me, and joined me. You might recognize them as the guardians of Altomare." The boy replied.

"Altomare… Impossible! I thought you told me that the Latios there was killed and transformed into the Soul Dew after the accident there." Oak said, working out there was some part of the story that Ash hadn't told yet.

"How about I let Latias tell you herself if you don't believe me then?" The boy replied.

"What do you mean? She can talk?" Samuel Oak just seemed even more confused.

'_No, but I can use telepathy to communicate.' A voice seemed to say, inside the mind of everyone in the room._

The Professor looked like he was about to have another outburst of questions, but Latias quickly shut him up with her Psychic powers.

'_It happened about two years ago, in Altomare. I was making my daily round of the city, when I saw the two that had threatened Altomare, all those years ago. Instantly knowing they were up to no good, I followed them. Turns out they were stalking Arceus, who was severely injured. I locked them into a Psychic hold, while telling Arceus to get away. Later, he summoned me to his palace, and told me for saving his life, I would get one wish. Of course, I didn't even have to think about what I really wanted! I wanted my brother back and amazingly, Arceus brought him back without damaging the Soul Dew! Soon after, we used our telepathy to locate Ash, and here we are.'_

Professor Oak fainted on the spot.

"Well this place looks as good as a place as any to set up camp." Brock said to the group, who had arrived at a large, grassy clearing.

"Hmph. I'd still prefer a bed, but this'll have to do." Misty said, with an annoyed look on her face.

The group of people quickly set up their camping gear and sat around a fire, as the sun was beginning to set in the distance.

"Hey Brock, how long is there until the start of the TOA? I hope it's not too long! I can't wait much longer." Max said, somehow still energetic after the long day.

"Hmm… Let me see… Seems like we arrived early. The tournament doesn't start for another week! That gives us time to train I guess. You have to remember Max, you and Misty are the only ones who are actually Pokémon trainers here." Brock replied.

Max sighed, the excitement draining from him, "I guess that's true. I might as well make the best of the time and fit in some training! I have to win this one!" He said, going from bored to excited in a few seconds.

"No way Max! I'm going to beat you!" His sister said, teasingly.

"Hey! There's no way I'm going to let you beat me! I'm a trainer and you're a coordinator, so I clearly have the advantage." He said, with a self-confident smile on his face.

"Hey! I take offence to that! Are you saying trainers are better than coordinators?" Dawn shouted, glaring at Max.

"Umm… No I meant err… I was just saying… Please don't kill me!" Max said, clearly afraid of the things he could do to him.

"Well take back what you said about coordinators and trainers and I will." Dawn said, with a triumphant look on her face.

"OK! OK! Coordinators are much better than trainers! Just don't hurt me!" Max said, a bit relieved that that was over.

This time it was Misty's turn to be angry.

"Hey! Are you saying I'm not as good as a coordinator?" She shouted.

Max sat there, wondering how he was going to get himself out of this one, when someone interrupted.

"We should be getting to sleep guys; it's starting to get late." Brock said, looking at Max with a face that said "You owe me".

Ash sat alone on the balcony of Professor Oak's lab, staring into the night sky. He seemed to be deep in thought.

'_I wonder what will happen if I see my friends… Or worse, if they find out that I'm there. I just can't face them right now. They'll probably see me as the dark person I am now.'_

'_Thinking about your friends then, I see.'_

Ash didn't even need to turn around to know that the person, or rather Pokémon, communicating to him, he had been with Latios long enough to know who it would be.

"I am." Ash said, with a tone that would make most people back off and leave him to his own thoughts. Latios, however, had been with Ash long enough to know that tone meant that he actually wanted you to talk to him.

"_You should talk to them! I'm sure they'll accept you for who you really are! It's just not like you to give up on yourself and your friends so easily!", _Latias said, floating onto the balcony and floating next to Ash.

"I might." He said, returning to his private world of self-pity.

'_I wonder where Ash is…'_ Max thought as he lay in his sleeping bag.

'_He promised me that we'd battle one day…'_

"_I got it! You know you're going to become a Pokémon trainer, and then you and I will battle!" Ash said encouragingly._

"_You mean… me battle against you? It's a deal! Promise me that no matter what, we'll battle one day!" Max said, going from depressed to excited in an instant._

"_I promise!" Ash said, with an equal amount of enthusiasm. _

'_He still hasn't made good on that promise… I hope I see him again someday…'_ The trainer thought, as he drifted off, into the deep void of sleep.

Max woke up to see the rest of the group sitting around the now extinguished fire, quietly chatting.

Walking up to them, he said, "Morning guys. I'm going to go explore the town a bit. Anyone want to join me?"

Everyone shook their heads, deciding to chill for a while before exploring the town. Max shrugged and walked off in the direction of the port.

Standing on the pier, staring out into the sparkling blue ocean, feeling the warm sea air and the smell of the sea was oddly relaxing to the young boy. Max started thinking about his adventures with Ash. They all seemed like they had taken place years ago now, but then again, they had.

Being so deep in thought, Max failed to notice a hooded stranger walk up next to him, looking at his face with an amused look on his face.

"A lot on your mind, eh?" The stranger suddenly said.

"Whoa! When did you come here?" Max said in surprise.

"Heh. Didn't notice me? I've been standing here for the last 10 minutes, watching you." The stranger replied.

"Oh… Well yeah… I have quite a lot on my mind you see, so I guess I didn't notice you." The boy replied, wondering why the stranger would care.

"No, I'm afraid I don't see. Why don't you sit down and tell me what's going on." The stranger said with a concerned tone in his voice.

Max saw nothing wrong with this, and saw it as a good opportunity to let out his problems. The two of them walked over to a nearby bench and sat down.

"Well you see, I've been thinking of a good friend of mine that disappeared four years ago. He didn't even tell anyone that he left." Max started.

"Some friend he was…" The stranger began to say.

"No! You have it all wrong! He was probably the best friend anyone could have. He would listen to your problems and comfort you! And now he's gone and I'll never see him again!" Max said, as he broke down in tears.

"C'mon boy, I'm sure he'll come back one day. If he's as good of a friend as you say he was, I'm certain he'll come back! He might even be at this tournament participating. Seeing as he was such a good Pokémon trainer, there's no way he would miss out on an opportunity like this." The stranger reassuringly said.

"Y..y..our right! He'll be here! He has to be here!" Max shouted, with a cheerful look on his face.

"Wait a second, I didn't tell you that he was a Pokémon trainer! And I didn't say he was a good one either! Who are you?" Max turned around but the stranger had disappeared, leaving Max to wonder who he was and why he was comforting him.

May watched her brother talk to a mysterious man alone, and was understandably worried. The man looked a bit like a thug and she was rather afraid that he was going to harm her brother. When he broke down in tears, she was going to walk over to the man and teach him a lesson, but the man stood up and walked away, leaving Max actually looking cheerful.

Still, she wouldn't let someone make her little bro cry and get away with it.

Walking up to the man, she said, "Hey! Who do you think you are, making my brother cry?"

The man simply grunted and continued walking, shoving past her as he did.

"Stop! I'm not letting you go without a fight!" She rashly said before pulling out a pokeball and enlarging it, obviously showing the man what kind of fight she wanted.

"Fine. I don't have time for this, so we'll have a one-on-one battle, fine with you?"

"Whatever! Glaceon, take the stage!" May shouted, throwing her pokeball and letting out her Glaceon.

"Glaceon!" Glaceon said, as it came out of its ball.

"Hmph, nice Glaceon." The stranger simply said.

"Flattery will get you nowhere! I'm not backing down! Send out your Pokémon." May replied, with an angry tone in her voice.

"As you wish. Lucario! May the aura be with you!", the stranger shouted, throwing out a pokeball of his own.

May hesitated – The Lucario was obviously a strong one, and she was beginning to have her doubts about acting so rashly, but nevertheless, she didn't back down.

Forgetting her momentary concern, she shouted, "Glaceon, Quick Attack into Iron Tail! Go!"

"Lucario, wait for it." The stranger said calmly.

'_Very well Master'_

At the last moment before the attack hit, the stranger quickly shouted out, "Duck and use Close combat!"

The Lucario quickly ducked under the lightning fast iron tail, seemingly predicting the location of the attack a moment before it hit and counter-attacked with a flurry of strong punches and kicks. At close range, along with the type-effectiveness, the damage done was devastating. Glaceon couldn't handle it and fell to the ground, its eyes replaced with swirls.

"Your Glaceon is unable to battle. I win."

May fell to her knees, head down, unable to believe that her Pokémon had been defeated with a single attack! Her! A famous coordinator, defeated by a nobody.

Ash walked away from the beaten girl with a triumphant look on his face. She had deserved it for being so reckless and letting her anger blind her. She should've stayed at a distance, knowing that Lucario were more effective at close range, while a Glaceon would be more effective at a further range. Walking back to his campsite, a clearing in the forest nearby, he was greeted by his Pokémon.

After all the years being with his Pokémon, he had gained the ability to understand what they were saying. A very useful ability, if he did say so himself.

Thus, he was able to clearly understand the "Ash!" that his Meganium as she ran towards him, trying to tackle him to the floor. He managed to dodge in time, however.

He then proceed to walk off towards the fireplace to sit down, as Meganium couldn't stop her momentum and ended up running into a tree. He looked around at his Pokémon. Most of them were sitting around, but some were running around playing and Sceptile and Charizard were sparring, like usual.

After four years of training, he decided that they should be able to take the week before the tournament off and just relax.

Alas, he had no intention on losing in the upcoming tournament, so they would have to do some training, even if they did deserve a rest. It wouldn't do to grow slack during the most difficult challenge of their lives.

"Ok guys, time for some training." He said to his Pokémon, hearing some of them groan, while Sceptile and Charizard just grinned.

Unlike most trainers, Ash didn't sit around watching his Pokémon train; he trained with them, joining in their training exercises. He was strong enough to avoid serious damage, and after training so long with his Pokémon, he himself had become a formidable fighter.

"You're saying this guy just beat you without even trying?"

"That's what I said! He beat Glaceon with a single attack! I can't believe how fast his Lucario was! It even out-sped Glaceon's Quick Attack." May replied.

"That must've been a very well trained Lucario then. Priority attacks like Quick Attack are difficult to dodge and extremely hard to out-speed!" Brock replied, clearly in awe of the Pokémon that had achieved this feat.

Max, finally returning from his walk, walked into the clearing at this moment. May rushed over to him with a look of concern on her face.

"Max! You had me so worried! What did that man do to you? Tell me! WHAT DID HE DO TO YOU?" She shouted, grabbing him and shaking him.

Max, obviously surprised at his sister's sudden violent movements, jumped back and said, "What are you talking about? Don't attack me like that!"

"Sorry bro, but I was really worried about you. What did that shady looking guy in the jacket do to you? I saw him talking to you and then you started crying, then he just walked off!" May said.

"Huh? Oh, he saw that I was deep in thought, so he asked me what was wrong so I told him and he comforted me, but when I looked to thank him, he had disappeared."

"He's no ordinary person! That guy took down Glaceon with a single attack!" May said, still annoyed at how easily her Glaceon had lost.

Max, also in awe of the impressive sounding Pokémon, started asking May all sorts of questions like "What moves did his Pokémon use?" and "How big was it?" jumping around in excitement as he did so.

May, sighed and walked off, leaving Max asking questions to no one.

'_I wonder who that guy was…'_ she thought to herself.

**Well, well, well! I reached 2700 words. Not bad I guess, but I'll be aiming for 3000 tomorrow! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I couldn't resist putting Latios and Latias in, but I was wondering. Do you guys want them to be sort of like main characters or just be Ash's Pokémon, no more, no less. I could think of ways to integrate them in the main story I guess. **

**Final thing before I finish this, I'll put up a poll on my profile for what shipping you would like to see in the story. I won't promise anything, but I'll see what I can do.**


	5. The Tournament Begins

**My goal for this Chapter was 2500 words, which I managed to reach. The tournament has finally started! **

**Currently, AltoShipping is ahead by 1 vote, but I'll let the poll run for about 2 more chapters before deciding if I am going to put any in.**

**Enjoy!  
**

* * *

"Before we finish up for today, we will announce the rules for the tournament!" The announcer shouted, near the end of the opening ceremony.

The crowd cheered in response.

"Here today, we have an astounding 2048 contestants for the Tournament of Arceus, held only once every 50 years!" The announcer… announced.

The crowd cheered even louder.

"Out of this huge group of trainers, only one will emerge as victor! Only the best of the best will succeed in this tournament!"

"We will have FIVE elimination rounds, which will ultimately reduce the amount of trainers left to 64. The first three will be one-on-one battles with no substitutions, and the final two will be three-on-three battles, once again with no substitutions! Trainers, good luck to you all. Check with your computer for more details, and more importantly, who and when you will be battling in your first battle!"

The stadium was packed to capacity with fans and spectators alike, as they prepared for possibly the greatest tournament in the history of great tournaments.

Ash Ketchum stood near the front of the large group of trainers, amazed and slightly nervous about the tremendous amount of people in the area. He had been training in solitary areas, so he had rarely had any human contact, let alone with this amount of people.

He highly doubted he would win, but he didn't care. He was here to test the strength of his Pokémon and hopefully reunite with his past.

He may have trained for four years, but some of the trainers here had been training for far longer. Though he did have two secret weapons, he thought with a smirk on his face.

"_So we're just weapons to you?"_ Latias said with a tone of fake hurt in her telepathic voice.

Ash just smiled, knowing fully well that Latias didn't mean it. The two had grown very close in the last couple years, their bond rivalling that of Ash and Pikachu's. Of course, it helped that they had something to work off of.

Noticing people around him were moving, Ash snapped out of confusion, umm… thought, and followed the group walking towards the exit.

The teen felt a stab of pain as he turned around and saw his friends talking together, discussing about the tournament.

Ash started moving away, hoping they wouldn't notice him, but it seemed Arceus was against him today, as Max walked towards him, with a look of recognition of his face.

"Hey! Aren't you the trainer that I talked with last week?" The boy said.

May, seeing what he was going on about and shyly walked up to him, mumbling.

"What?" Ash said, unable to hear what the girl was saying.

"I… said I was sorry for blaming you and attacking you…" She quietly said.

The raven-haired teen had a cold look on his face, but it cleared and he simply said, "No problem."

Brock, putting two and two together, figured this was the trainer that had defeated May so easily, and walked up to him, intending to ask him about the battle, however, Gary beat him to this.

"So you're the trainer that beat May so easily? Impressive." Gary said.

Ash stared at him for a bit, before finally saying "If I recall correctly, yes, that's true."

Ash was struggling internally. One side of him wanted to reveal who he was to his former friends, but the other part was telling him not to. In the end the darker part of him won, and he started walking away, saying "I have some things to take care of, I must leave."

"Wait! Can you at least give us your name?" Brock said.

Deciding that there was no turning back now, the teen simply gave him the cover name he had invented for the competition.

"Red." He said as he walked off.

* * *

"Well… He is certainly an interesting young man." Brock said, as Ash walked off.

"Well he certainly doesn't seem like the talkative kind of guy anyways! C'mon guys, we have to go find out who we're going against!" Dawn said.

Walking towards one of the temporary Pokémon centres set up for the sole purpose of allowing contestants to view who they would be up against and a place to rest, the group asked Nurse Joy if this particular centre had any rooms.

"Actually, we do in fact have a few rooms left! Lucky you. Here's the key, your room numbers are 102 and 103" She replied, with a tired tone in her voice.

Misty nodded, quickly taking the keys and dragging Brock off before he could react.

* * *

Back in their rooms, the gang looked at the computer showing when their battles were scheduled.

"Well this sucks, all our battles are scheduled at the same time today. That means we can't watch each other." The Pokémon breeder said with a frown on his face.

* * *

"This will be a one-on-one battle between Red of Pallet Town and Kyte of Jubilife City. Substitutions are not allowed. Begin the battle!"

Kyte just smiled and looked at his group of fans backing him. This was going to be a pushover, he thought, while holding a pokeball in his hand.

Ash looked at Kyte. He looked to be a young teenager, about the age of 12. He looked over-energetic and over-confident, something Ash was planning to take advantage of. The boy was wearing a black shirt with a pokeball design on it, and wore plain black pants.

"Staraptor, let's go!" Kyte shouted, throwing the enlarged pokeball onto the battlefield, releasing the Predator Pokémon in a flash of red.

"Lucario, May the aura be with you!" Ash said, throwing his own pokeball out, sending out an impressive looking Lucario.

"Staraptor, let's take the initiative with aerial ace, full power! We'll finish this here and now!" The energetic boy said.

"Hmm… Was I really this energetic back then?" Ash asked his buddy on his shoulder.

"PikaPi Pikachu Pika Chu Pi" (You were far more energetic than this! It was so fun watching you make a fool of yourself every day!)

"Hmph. Let's just finish this quick Lucario."

'_Very well Master.''_

"Lucario, take it down with an aura sphere!"

"Quick Staraptor, dodge it!" Kyte shouted.

The Staraptor did an amazingly sharp turn to dodge the sphere, not knowing that the attack would not and could not miss.

Kyte's face broke out in a grin, "Good job Staraptor take it down with brave bird!"

Sadly, Lucario simply manipulated the aura sphere into turning around and smashing the poor bird in the side, knocking it onto the floor fainted.

"Staraptor is unable to battle! Red and his Lucario are the victors and shall move on in the tournament!"

Ash returned his Pokémon, thanking it as he walked away, watching the boy fall to his knees, murmuring to himself as his fans looked equally depressed.

* * *

The whole group had won their battles. Some of them by a little (Like Brock and Gary, who hadn't done much Pokémon battling in a while) and some by a lot (Like Max and Misty, who had been keeping up their training).

Walking out of the battle arena, they saw Red sitting on a bench by a tree, with their friend Tracey next to him.

"Hey Tracey! Over here!" Misty shouted.

Tracey saw them and waved, walking over to them.

"Hey guys, where've you been? I've been looking for you this whole week now!"

They continued talking for a bit, exchanging little bits of information, until the others got bored and walked off, sitting on the bench that Tracey had come from.

Brock, noticing that the stranger named Red was sitting next to him, tried to start a conversation again.

"So uhh… Did you win your battle?" The breeder asked.

The stranger looked at him funnily, and then calmly replied, "Of course."

'_Well this kid sure is arrogant; he says it like there's no way he could lose.'_

Suddenly, there was a flash of light behind them as Latias re-adjusted her light-refracting feathers, revealing herself to Ash, not noticing the others nearby. Speeding towards Ash, she knocked him off the bench, hugging him and cooing.

That is, until she noticed the others watching in amazement at the fact that they were watching a real legendary Pokémon.

Ash, standing up and dusting himself off, noticed the looks his former friends were giving him. Max's was of jealousy, but the others were of astonishment at the fact that the Latias was playing with him, and the fact that the Latias looked strangely familiar.

A yellow rodent burst out of the bushes, startling everyone and bringing them back to reality, as it jumped up on Red's shoulder, rubbing its cheek against his with a contented "Chaaa".

"Wow, he looks so similar to HIM." May said.

'_Crap, bad time to come out Pikachu…'_ Ash thought.

Pikachu had been back at the clearing with the other training Pokémon, making sure they didn't argue, and because Ash didn't want his friends finding out his identity, and with Pikachu, they might just do that.

"Umm… Gotta go?" Ash said, jumping on Latias and silently telling her through his mind and aura to get out of here, and fast!

'_Aww, your no fun anymore!'_

_

* * *

_The man stood next to his Tyranitar, staring at the bodies of at least ten electric Pokémon coldly, as if he didn't care at all that the Pokémon there could die if not treated.

This wasn't too far from the truth, as he really didn't care what happened to those Pokémon, as long as he completed his mission.

"Raikou should be here any moment now." The stranger said.

As if on cue, a loud roar was heard nearby, as a huge bolt of electricity shot into the sky.

Raikou burst into the clearing, looking at the man who had so cruelly taken down the group of innocent electric Pokémon, knowing his intentions.

"So you're the legendary Raikou. A pleasure to meet you." The main said with a grin.

"Tyranitar! Earthquake followed up with a stone edge!"

The Pokémon obeyed, but Raikou was too fast and simply jumped behind the armour Pokémon, shooting it with a powerful bolt of lightning.

The giant Pokémon staggered, but didn't fall, and spun around, hitting Raikou with a fiery punch.

Raikou roared, distracted for the moment as it staggered back from the powerful attack.

That was all the stranger needed. A moment. He threw a strange ball like object, and on contact with Raikou, it expanded into a net, pinning Raikou to the ground. The thunder Pokémon fired off Thunder attacks, but the net absorbed them like they were nothing.

"Gotcha"

* * *

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?"

Ash was panicking. Either his identity was going to be revealed to his friends, or they would start bothering him about Latias, eventually being around him long enough to figure out who he was.

Sighing, he figured there was nothing he could do now, and there was no use panicking about it.

"PikaPi?" (Are you alright?) The concerned Pikachu on his shoulder asked.

"I'm fine Pikachu; I'm just worried about what's going to happen if I see my former friends again." Ash replied with confidence he did not currently possess.

Pikachu, concerned about his trainer, friend and master shocked him with a light thunder wave.

Ash, knowing that this was Pikachu's way of getting him to talk when he didn't want to, gave in knowing that resistance was futile.

"It's just that… like I said to Professor Oak and Tracey, I'm no longer the same person I was four years ago. Too much has happened since then. I haven't had human contact for years, and suddenly I get thrown in this mess… It's really confusing and nerve-wracking, you know?"

"Pika PikaPi Pikachu Cha Chu Pi Pika" (C'mon Ash, It's not like you to be so scared!) Pikachu said.

"Hey! Who said I was scared?" The slightly angered and insulted Ash replied.

Pikachu snickered and replied, "Pika Pikachu Pi Chu Cha Pika PikaPi Pikachu Ka Pi" (You said you were confused and nerve-wracked. Sounds scared to me)

Ash sighed, saying "Fine… You're right. I am scared. Scared of facing my friends after abandoning them. I left without telling anyone, left for four years without letting any of them know where I was or how I was. They probably think I'm dead, and it should stay that way. I don't deserve to be their friends after what happened.

* * *

"Amazing… A real Latias, up close! I've never seen anything like it before!" Max shouted, seemingly going crazy from ecstasy.

"Umm Max, haven't you seen other Legendary Pokémon while travelling with HIM?" May said.

"Oh… Yeah… Heh heh."

"My question is why did that Latias act so friendly towards Red? And was that Pikachu that jumped out of the bushes his? Why did that Latias look so familiar too…? I feel like I've seen it somewhere before." Brock said, thinking about all the possibilities.

"Me too! I've definitely seen that Pikachu and Latias somewhere before." Misty said, agreeing with Brock.

"Wait a moment; didn't we see a Latias and Latios back in Altomare? Come to think of it, that Pikachu looked a lot like you-know-who's!" Brock said.

"Don't be ridiculous Brock, his dead!" Dawn said, a little too harshly.

Silence.

More silence.

Even more deathly silence.

"Uhh… Sorry! I didn't mean it like that! It's just that no one's seen him for four years, and you're saying it like his here, right here, in Indigo Plateau. It's just really hard to believe." Dawn countered, trying to cover up her mistake.

The others nodded, satisfied by her comeback.

"Why don't we just ask Red then?" May said, trying to think of a way to get everyone back to the smiling, happy selves they were.

"Duh! We don't know where Red even is! There's so many Pokémon centres in the town the chances of finding him and next to none." Max said, seeing the huge fault in his sister's plan.

Hearing what they were talking about, Tracey ran up to them shouting, "I know where he is! We both travelled here together and I watched him set up camp before leaving! His camp is in the forest, come on, I'll show you."

Not bothering to ask Tracey to explain why he was travelling with the teen, they all followed him blindly into the forest, hoping to get an explanation of why the man seemed to know that Latias so well and why that Pikachu looked so familiar.

Ash was sitting down in the clearing, watching happily as his Pokémon ate the food he had prepared for them. Over the years, he had learnt to cook, and his Pokémon all loved the food he made for them.

Latias surprised him by tackling him, but Ash was too strong for the poor Eon Pokémon and rolled around, pinning her to the ground. The situation would have seemed awkward to watchers, as Ash was now on top of Latias, the two didn't seem to notice however, as Latios mentally laughed.

A group of figures burst out of the bushes, seeing Ash and Latias in the position they were in.

Ash, or Red, looked up at his former friends, finally realising what position he was in.

"Well this is rather awkward."

* * *

**The plot deepens! Who was the mysterious man that caught Raikou, and why did he do it? What is Ash going to do in this awkward situation? Find out next time, on Four Years!**

**Oh yeah! Nearly forgot. I'll need some OCs for the Tournament.**

**If you want to send one, PM ME (AND BY PM ME I MEAN PM, DONT PUT IT IN A REVIEW PLEASE) the Name, Age, Gender, Personality, Appearance, Battle cry (What they say before sending out their Pokemon) and 1-3 Pokemon. Thanks :)**

**If you have something to say about the story, why not review? I read all reviews and keep in mind what they say as I write, so your review could change the story, and it lets me know what I'm doing right and what I need to improve, so better story for you :)  
**


	6. Darkrai

**Only putting up a short chapter today, and there will be no chapter tomorrow, as I want to make the next chapter longer. Thus, the next chapter will be released on Saturday OR Sunday. **

**Enjoy! **

**Oh yeah, sorry about that typo last chapter with Lucario and Scizor. It was about 10pm (I sleep at 10:30pm) so I was kinda tired and didn't notice.  
**

* * *

"Well this is rather awkward."

Ash stood up, dusting himself off, and look at the stunned newcomers. He frowned, seeing his former friends.

"How can I help you?" He asked, trying to get this encounter over with as soon as possible.

The group just stood there, still in shock after watching Ash and Latias playing together **(A/N: No, not in that sick perverted way you're probably thinking about right now) **like they had known each other forever.

Ash frowned more, knowing what they were probably thinking right now.

"Are you wondering about this Latias?" He said, pointing to Latias, who was levitating next to him.

Latias looked at the group and tilted her head with a questioning look on her face that said _'Huh? You're thinking about me?'_

The entire group just stood there stammering, totally in shock. Sure, while travelling with Ash they had come across quite a few legendary Pokémon, but they hadn't seen one in a very long time now.

Ash looked through the group, and saw that the only person that wasn't stammering was Misty, surprisingly. In fact, she seemed to ignore him and was trying to snap some sense back into the group.

"HEY! RED! WHATS UP WITH THE LATIAS?" She shouted, rather suddenly.

'Red' flinched at her loud voice, wondering why so many people couldn't resist screaming in his face.

He sighed, figuring there was no way out of this bleak situation, and that he could either run away now, or explain the situation. He couldn't bring himself to run away from his friends again, so that left him with one choice.

"If you get your friends to stop their stammering and listen, I might just tell you the story of how I met Latias."

"YOU HEARD THE MAN, LISTEN YOU GUYS" Misty shouted again, causing 'Red' to flinch once more.

Everyone in the group instantly snapped out of confusion and stopped attacking themselves. Wait, what?

Everyone in the group instantly snapped out of their stunned trances and looked towards 'Red' waiting for him to talk.

"It all began like thi-"

Suddenly, a gigantic stream of fire burst out from the nearby stream, nearly frying the group.

"I've got you now Entei!"

"Where do you think that came from, May?" Max asked his sister, apparently more interested than scared of whatever the fire came from.

May looked around to see if Red knew anything, but surprisingly, he was already running towards the source of the attack. The others shrugged and followed him.

* * *

Ash had heard that voice before. He was sure of it. The voice brought back many bad memories, memories he would rather forget.

Memories of pain, the pain of watching his friend getting torn away from him. The pain of failing that very friend. He would not fail again. HE WOULD NOT, HE COULD NOT!

* * *

_Flashback_

_2 years ago._

_Ash had been sleeping when he had something land on the beach. Actually, he sensed it, rather than heard it, as it was as quiet as the night._

_Ash grinned, hoping to see his old friend._

_Walking up to the dark figure, he could make out the form of Darkrai. _

_Darkrai had found him a couple months back. The very Darkrai that he had met all those years ago in Alamos town. Darkrai returned from time to time to chat with Ash, and over time, the two became good friends._

_But his life was going to be filled with pain once more this night, as his friend was going to be torn from him._

_A dark figure dropped down from the sky, startling Ash and Darkrai. Looking around, they saw the shape of a man walking towards them._

"_Darkrai. I have finally found you." He said simply._

_Darkrai, sensing danger, instantly got into a battle stance, noticing Ash standing next to him with a ball of aura in his hands._

"_Leave this place." He said with a threatening growl. _

_The tone of his voice would've caused any normal person to cower in fear, but this man just smiled, unperturbed by his very angry and threatening tone._

"_I don't wish to hurt either of you. Darkrai, come with me peacefully and neither of you will get hurt."_

_Both Ash and Darkrai could sense that this man's intentions were not good, and attacked, Ash firing a ball of aura and Darkrai firing a shadow ball._

_As the smoke cleared from the attacks, they saw that the man had disappeared. Or rather, was no longer in that position._

_The man laughed, saying "Well, well, well, is that how you treat a guest? Didn't your MOTHER teach you any manners?"_

_Ash roared, antagonized by the fact that the man was purposely taunting him. He formed a blade of aura in his hands, and rushed towards the man with breakneck speed._

_He raised the blade and slashed it quickly down in the direction of the strange man. The man easily dodged it and grabbed Ash's hand, twisting it and causing him to cry out in pain._

"_Fool, never let anger cloud your fighting." _

"_Metagross, let's dominate, Meteor Mash on Darkrai."_

_Darkrai, hearing him, simply sent a dark void at Metagross, aiming to put it to sleep. He was shocked however, as the dark void did nothing at all. The shock didn't last long as it was replaced by unconsciousness as the Meteor Mash knocked him out._

_Ash's heart was racing. He had to stop this man or Darkrai would be in trouble. He reached for his belt to grab a pokeball, but remembered all his Pokémon were still sleeping. 'Damn. What am I going to do now?'_

_Thinking quickly, he fired a barrage of aura spheres towards the man, manipulating them to follow him as he dodged them._

_Finally, one made contact and the man grunted and flinched. Ash, taking this opportunity, fired more aura spheres, covering the area around the man with a cloud of dust._

"_ENOUGH. THIS. ENDS. NOW!" Ash heard from the dust cloud, as a huge force of psychic energy blasted out, knocking him nearly unconscious against a tree._

_He could only watch helplessly as the man took out a pokeball from his bag, tapped it against Darkrai and smiled at him, as Darkrai was captured without resistance. _

"_No… This can't be happening… NO!"_

_For the rest of the night, he sat in the same spot, crying._

_End of flashback_

_

* * *

_

NO! NOT THIS TIME!

Ash burst into the clearing near the spring, instantly seeing several fainted fire-type Pokémon lieing on the floor, dreading what he would see next.

Looking around the clearing, he saw what he had been dreading. The very same man, in the very same cloak, was smiling as he watched a very weak Entei fight against his Dragonite.

Ash was filled with absolute rage, but knew he had the element of surprise with him.

Slowly charging up a high powered aura sphere, he prepared to fire it, when suddenly a group of figures burst into the clearing, right near the Dragonite.

"NO! YOU FOOLS!" He shouted, losing his concentration and thus extinguishing the aura sphere.

"GET AWAY FROM THERE!"

Finally noticing what was going on, the group turned at the man, seeing him smile. Ash desperately hoped they would have the common sense to run, he couldn't bare losing anymore of his friends to this man, but instead, they pulled out their pokeballs, releasing the Pokémon inside.

As he watched the scene, time seemed to slow as the powerful Dragonite defeated all their Pokémon with a single Draco Meteor.

Unable to bear the scene any longer, he ran out in front of the Dragonite, who was now charging towards his former friends with a dragon claw, and fired a large sphere of aura energy right at its chest.

The dragon roared in pain, staggering backwards, already tired from its battle with Entei.

Knowing that it would recover soon, Ash pressed forward, forming a blade of aura in his hands as he made an amazing leap forwards, plunging the aura blade into the Dragons chest, right into the spot he had just hit with the aura sphere.

The mighty dragon roared in pain, unable to stand it anymore punishment, fell over, fainted.

The man simply laughed at Ash's movements, returning his Dragonite back to its ball.

"Hah! So it's you again! How about I reunite you with your friend?" He said with a huge smile on his face.

"Darkrai, lets come out and play!"

Ash was stunned, how could the fool expect Ash's old friend to fight him?

Darkrai looked at Ash with a harsh glare, before recognizing him.

'_Ash…'_

"Fool! Stop staring and attack, or you'll face the consequences!" The mysterious man shouted.

'_Please forgive me Ash!'_ Darkrai said, charging and fire a shadow ball.

'_No… Why Darkrai, WHY'_

Ash was deeply angered by this man. Who did he think he was, forcing his good friend to attack him?

"Red! Look out!"

Ash quickly looked up, seeing a shadow ball coming towards him. He barely had time to register it, before it slammed into him.

* * *

**Once again, I hope you enjoyed that, and I'll see you all on Saturday/Sunday!**


	7. The Merge

**Sorry for the delay everyone, but yesterday instead of writing I decided to play Black Ops... So err... Yeah. I'm finally done though, a 5000 word chapter, my longest yet! I really enjoyed writing this one.**

**Also, I'm still looking for OCs. If you want to submit one, PM it to me please, and make sure to include the Name, Gender, Personality, Appearance, Battle cry and Pokemon (No legendaries either please)**

**Oh yes, and in reply to Shade: You have to remember that my chapters are about 2000 words each, so they aren't too long and I have quite a bit of free time. I'm in grade 8 so I don't have tonnes of homework either :P  
**

* * *

Ash quickly looked up, seeing a shadow ball coming towards him. He barely had time to register it, before it slammed into him.

Someone shouted something along the lines of "NO!" but Ash wasn't paying attention. As the dust cleared, the bystanders could see that Ash looked as if he hadn't taken any damage at all from that attack.

In fact, he hadn't taken damage from that attack. He had quickly created an aura shield around himself, just before he got hit by the impact of the attack.

Surprisingly, Ash didn't fight back, but just collapsed on his knees, asking "Why Darkrai, why do you have to fight? Is it because I failed you? If it is, then kill me. I have no right to live, I ran away from my friends and I failed them as well."

Darkrai looked at him with an amused look, before telepathing back.

'_You did not fail me. You did the best that you could, and I'm proud to have a friend like you… but I must fight, for if I do not, then my other friends will be in grave danger. I'm sorry Ash, but if you surrender and let this evil person capture Entei, no harm will come of any of us. Please Ash, it's the best way.'_

Ash nodded, understanding the wisdom in Darkrai's words and looked up on the mysterious person saying, "Fine. I surrender. Take Entei and leave!" He had to force out the last words, as he would never willingly abandon any injured Pokémon, but he had no choice.

The stranger grunted, acknowledging his surrender, but did something none of them expected. He sent a powerful psychic blast at Ash, knocking him against a tree (AGAIN).

"Who do you think you are? You just attacked someone who had surrendered! Have you no honour?" Brock shouted, angry at the fact that this man had just attacked their new 'friend'.

The stranger however, ignored him, but instead looked towards Entei with a content smile. He had gotten what he had come here to get.

* * *

Ash felt a surge of energy as he was blasted against the tree. This had happened before, and he had lost a friend. It would NOT happen again!

He groaned in pain as he stood up, a big gaping wound across his back.

"No! You're too injured to fight. Just look at that huge wound on your back. You need to rest, Red." Brock said, concerned about the health of the man who was trying to save Entei.

Ash however, completely ignored the breeder, as his eyes began to glow blue. The entire clearing suddenly exploded with a harsh blue light, stunning everyone around. As they looked towards the source of the light, they saw Red, his wounds completely healed.

"If you're so strong, why don't you come and fight me yourself, coward!" He shouted at the mysterious stranger.

"Hmph, like I would waste my time with trash like you. Darkrai, take care of him this pathetic kid." The mysterious person said, as he walked over to Entei planning to capture it in a pokeball.

Ash looked towards Darkrai. Darkrai had a regretful look on his face, but Ash knew they would have to fight, or Entei would be captured.

"Pikachu, go to the others, I have to fight this battle alone."

Pikachu looked at his master, uneasy at the fact that he was about to go up against this powerful person alone, but seeing his determination, Pikachu ran off to where the other Pokémon were watching helplessly, unable to assist their master in the coming battle.

'_Forgive me, Ash!'_ Darkrai telepathed, preparing to fire a shadow ball.

'_Forgive me, Darkrai!'_ Ash telepathed back, preparing an aura sphere.

They both released their spheres at the same time, causing a large explosion in the middle of them. Both had come out unscathed.

Darkrai fired a dark void towards Ash, but Ash saw it coming and jumped to the left, firing an aura sphere towards Darkrai, who promptly shot it down with a night shade attack.

As the aura-wielder landed, he spun around, putting his mouth to his fingers, muttering "_Aura.__Ostende aestu." _Blue fire erupted out from his fingers, burning Darkrai and covering him with scorch marks.

Darkrai roared in anger, stopping the attack cold with a powerful shadow ball.

Ash avoided the attack, and keeping up the momentum he flipped in Darkrai's direction, forming a dagger out of aura and throwing it at the nightmare Pokémon.

Darkrai was once again hit with a direct hit, and unable to stand it any longer, collapsed to the ground.

'_You are still stronger than me, I see.'_ Were his last thoughts, before he passed out on the grassy forest floor.

The mysterious stranger grunted in frustration, returning Darkrai and turning to face Ash.

"I guess I'll have to take you down myself, won't I?" The stranger said, with a grin on his face. Ash however, was not intimidated and wasted no time, as he ran towards the stranger with his hands ready to thrust out.

As he thrust his hands forwards, he shouted "Aura! Monstrare tonitru!"

Two blue lightning bolts fired out of his hands, crackling as they made their way towards their target.

The stranger, grinning even more, simply flicked his wrist and used his psychic powers to redirect the bolt into the ground, rendering it useless.

Then he looked at Ash with an amused look and picking him up with psychic, threw him against the tree again, confident he wouldn't be able to fight anymore.

"Urgh… Who…..are…you…." Ash said, barely able to form the words in his bloodied and bruised mouth.

"You really want to know that badly? Fine!" He replied, as his very form seemed to shimmer, revealing a black-haired girl who was about his age.

"WHOA WHOA WHOA! Weren't you just a dude?" Ash asked, clearly surprised at this unexpected turn of events.

"Hmph. That was a disguise. I am Green, but you may also know me as Leaf." She said, looking at the group of people that were watching the scene with a look of astonishment on their faces.

She walked over to Entei, capturing him in a Pokeball before sending out a Salamance flying off, into the night sky.

* * *

'_I failed… Again… Forgive me Darkrai… Forgive me… Mother…' _Ash thought, before fading into unconsciousness.

Brock and the others, concerned about the teen who had quite possibly saved their lives, walked towards him to see how severe his wounds were, and possibly even find out his identity.

However, as they approached, all of Red's Pokémon immediately jumped up from their hiding place, forming a defensive circle around him, with his Pikachu seemly leading them and growling at the group, showing that they wouldn't hesitate to attack, should they feel that their master was threatened.

"Come on guys! We're just trying to help him. I have medicine in my backpack I can use to help his injuries." Brock said, slightly impressed at the Pokémon's loyalty to their master.

The Pikachu looked towards him for a second, then, ignoring him, turned around and shouted "Pikachu PikaPi Pi Ka Chu" to an apparently empty part of the clearing.

Apparently, it was not as empty as it seemed, as in a shimmer of light, Latios and Latias appeared, with Latias looking extremely concerned.

The humans just looked at the two Eon twins astonishment; Red had a Latios as well! A person having one legendary Pokémon was rare enough, but someone having two of them? Forget it! It was simply unheard of.

Max, who's logic was currently offline due to shock, shouted, "A LATIOS! I WANT IT! THIS COULD BE MY ONLY CHANCE!"

He threw a pokeball, which was a very bad mistake, as it was instantly fried as at least 15 attacks hit it. The Pokémon glared at him, not attacking because they could sense he was currently mentally insane.

Everyone sweatdropped.

* * *

The Eon twins simply nodded, floating over to where Ash and concentrated, with Latios using recover and Latias using refresh on him.

Ash stirred in his unconsciousness, and groggily sat up, looking around the clearing and then into the sky. As soon as he had recovered sufficiently, Latias tackled him to the ground, looking into his eyes, with her own eyes filled with concern.

'_Are you alright, Ashy?' _She asked, with sincere concern filling her eyes.

"I'm alright, sorry for worrying you." He replied, with the same look in his own eyes. The look of sincerity.

* * *

The girls in the group looked at the two with a look of jealously in their eyes, after seeing the extremely close bond the two shared. You had to have a very close bond with your Pokémon for its healing effects to affect you as well. Now that they looked closely, Red was actually extremely good looking, to the point where they were drooling as they watched him.

Red turned around, seeing them staring at him with drool on the corner of their mouths and mentally groaned, why did this always happen to him?

"See something you like?" He said, looking towards the girls.

They blushed and turned away hastily, trying to think of an excuse. Luckily, Brock, knowing how they felt, decided to step in.

"So… Red… Did you know that person?" He said, hoping to change the subject.

Red's face instantly changed from a look of amusement to a very dark, menacing look as he heard what Brock said.

"I knew her. Or rather, I knew the person she used to be… Before she changed into that dark shell you saw."

"Really? How did you know her? Was she a good friend of yours or something?" Brock replied, interested in how the young adult knew the girl who seemed to hate him.

Ash hesitated for a moment. He wondered whether it would be a good idea to tell them the full truth, or just tell them the truth about him and Leaf. He really wanted to tell his friends who he really was, but he also was afraid of telling them. What if they hated him for running away?

'_If you tell them the truth, they won't hate you. I guarantee you that. But I also can see that they don't completely trust you right now. Deep in their minds they think you're an untrustworthy, heartless person. But it's your choice.' _

Ash smiled as he heard Latio's psychic voice in his head helping him out, but he felt a jab of pain as he heard the last part of the advice. Latios was a telepath so naturally he could read people's minds, and if that were true, he certainly did not want to tell his friends who he really was.

In the end, Ash decided to tell the truth, or at least part of it.

"She's my… ex-girlfriend…"

* * *

Silence.

The looks on everyone's faces were priceless, but then again, you can't blame them. What Red said was unexpected.

More silence.

"HOW COULD YOU LOVE A HEARTLESS BITCH LIKE HER?"

Everyone turned towards the voice, which, rather unsurprisingly, came from Misty. When she noticed everyone staring at her, she blushed and said, "Uh… I… Um… I didn't mean it like that! You know what I mean! You saw how cruel and mean she was, I don't see how you can even consider being even a FRIEND to someone like that"

"She wasn't always cruel and evil. I don't know why she changed… She… She used to be the girl of my dreams. Everything I knew about her was perfect. But then that all changed one day, it all changed in the blink of an eye. My life turned from heaven to hell." Red said, clearly uncomfortable about talking about this particular topic of discussion.

"Huh? What happened?" Misty asked, wondering how someone who seemed as perfect as Red had described could become the harsh, unforgiving person they had seen before. If someone could change that easily, she wondered what could've happened to Ash in the time he had been missing.

"I don't want to talk about it" Red simply said, before walking back to his camp in silence.

* * *

_The next day_

As the group walked into Red's camp, they saw him training with his Pokémon, and decided to watch quietly, thinking that he wouldn't notice them.

However, after a minute of watching, he said, without even turning around, "Any particular reason why you're spying on me?" Suddenly, they noticed his Pokémon forming a circle around them with threatening looks on their face, showing that they did not take kindly to people distracting their training.

Clearly taken back by this unexpected turn of events, the group simply stood there in shock, unable to comprehend how he had seen them without even turning around. They were certain that the Pokémon were too preoccupied training to notice them as well, obviously they were wrong.

"No, my Pokémon didn't see you. I sensed you." He said, somehow reading their minds.

"How did… how did you know that's what we were thinking?"

"Simple. Latios told me. Don't you know that powerful psychics can read the minds of people, and some can even control the minds of people? Usually it's much easier to read weak minds, like yours." Red said, with a slight tone of disgust in his voice.

"Hey! Are you calling us weak?" May said, obviously offended at the fact that this young adult seemed to think that he was better than them, even though he had only gotten lucky in a simply one-on-one Pokémon battle.

"Yes." Red simply replied, not even flinching at the girls threatening tone.

"HEY! You can call me weak, hell you can call me pathetic, but one thing I WILL NOT let you do is call my SISTER weak! Who do you think you are? Do you even know what she's been through?" Max shouted, angry at the raven-haired teen's words.

"Pikachu PikaPi Ka Chu Pi Pi Chu Pika PikaPi Pikachu Chu." Pikachu said, with a half amused, half mocking tone in his voice.

Ash snickered at what Pikachu said, before translating for the rest of the people. "Pikachu says 'Let me guess, did she forget to put her makeup on today?'" After saying this, Pikachu and Ash both broke into laughter, with Pikachu nearly falling off Ash's shoulder.

"Watch what you're saying! We all lost one of the best friends we ever had four years ago! He had a Pikachu; just like you, but unlike, you he was the kindest, most caring person I've ever met! I'LL TEACH YOU TO INSULT MAY LIKE THAT!"

Ash stopped laughing when he heard what Max said. Did they really respect him that much? And did they really think he was the complete opposite now? However, Ash had no time to think any more than that, as at that moment, Max pulled out a pokeball, throwing it while shouting, "Sceptile, Lets show them what we learnt from Ash Ketchum!"

"You really want a battle? You don't stand a chance, kid. Latias, prepare for battle!" Red shouted, not even throwing a pokeball. The reason was quickly revealed though, as Latias appeared, with a serious look on her face.

Max instantly flinched at the appearance of the legendary Pokémon. What hope did he have against a legendary? _'Stop thinking like that! If Ash could beat a legendary Pokémon, so can you!' _

"Just because you have a legendary, doesn't mean you're going to win!" Max said, trying to sound confident.

Ash just smiled, signalling for Max to start.

"Let's go Sceptile! Quick attack, full speed!" Max shouted.

Red and his Latias didn't move, didn't blink, and didn't flinch, as Sceptile came towards them at an extremely fast speed.

As Max saw Sceptile near Latias he shouted out another order, "Spin into leaf blade!" Sceptile obeyed, using the momentum from quick attack to spin, seconds away from slamming his blades into Latias.

"Latias, a psychic, please. Send it flying." Ash quietly said.

Instantly, Latias's eyes glowed blue, as the same blue outline outlined Sceptile, making him float upwards, before pushing him backwards, slamming him against a tree with incredible force.

Max's eyes widened as his saw his starter on the floor, its eyes replaced with swirls, defeated by a single attack.

"How did you… how… IMPOSSIBLE! How did you beat my strongest Pokémon with a single attack! You… YOU'LL PAY!" He shouted, returning his Sceptile.

"Fight me without your Pokémon, and we'll see who's stronger!" Max said, blinded by anger, as he charged towards Red.

Ash could sense what Latias was thinking, and quietly told her that he would handle it. Latias nodded, knowing the boy was in for a surprise.

Red moved with a speed no normal person could ever reach, as he slammed Max down on the floor, forming a sharp blade of aura in his hands, pointing it at his throat, with a smile on his face.

Max had a total look of surprise on his face, but it was soon replaced with fear as he realised that Red could kill him with a simple flick of his wrist.

"P..Pl…Please don't kill me!" He said, afraid that the youth was going to kill him here and now.

"No." Ash simply said, as he slashed Max's throat, dissolving him into a blue light and absorbing him into the blade.

* * *

"NO! YOU KILLED HIM YOU FREAK!" May shouted, running at Red, pounding him with her fists, despite what she had seen.

The others simply stood there in shock.

Seemingly not noticing the girls attack, he shook his head saying, "No. I didn't kill him. I simply transformed his being into aura energy and absorbed it into my aura blade. He deserved it for attacking me."

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DID! JUST GIVE HIM BACK!" May said, instantly switching from attack Ash with her fists, to sobbing on him.

"Very well." He said, walking up to Max's pokeballs, leaving May sobbing on the floor, and pulled out a random one, throwing it into the air. Out came a very confused Gardevoir, who instantly began looking for Max.

Ash concentrated for on his blade for a moment, before an orb of aura energy floated out, entering Gardevoir. Suddenly, Gardevoir's eyes changed from red to brown.

'_Whoaa, what happened?_' The Gardevoir said in everyone's minds.

Ash, sensing everyone's confusion, decided to explain, "I put Max's consciousness into the body of his Gardevoir. He needs to learn a lesson about randomly attacking people. I had to choose a psychic type so he could communicate with you people though, seeing as I'm nice."

'_This feels really weird! Wait, if you can put people's consciousness into other bodies, does that mean you can like, possess people and stuff?' _Max inquired.

"Hmm… I never thought of that…" Red said, looking around at the group and wondering if he was evil enough to mix everyone up. In the end, he decided not to.

"Are you going to change him back?" May asked, her eyes rimmed with red, although she had finally finished crying.

Red nodded, simply saying, "Come back here tomorrow and I'll change him back."

'_Tomorrow? NO! I have a battle today, and I can't attend like this! If I don't attend I'll be disqualified!'_ Max telepathed with a scared tone.

Red shrugged, before saying, "Well, well, well, you should've thought of that before attacking an aura-user, shouldn't you."

Ash did feel pity for the boy however, so he gave the boy an option.

"Hmm… I don't want to let you go without a lesson, but I pity you, so maybe you can control your body psychically?" Red said, reforming Max's body in a flash of blue.

'_I...I can't use any psychic powers… Don't you know? It can take a Ralts months just learn how to use its powers. Can't you do that consciousness transference thingy again?'_

"Hmph. I told you I won't let you get off so easily without teaching you a lesson." Red replied.

'_Umm… What about May? She could fill in for me!'_

"Eww! No way am I going in YOUR body Max! Forget it!" May replied, disgusted with the very idea.

"Hah! I have a solution, and a rather ironic one at that. I'll put Gardevoir's consciousness into your body and she can be the trainer while you can be the Pokémon." Red said, clearly wondering what it would be like to do that, as he concentrated once more, forming another ball of aura, moving it into Max's stationary body.

"I'll be watching your battle, kid. But for now, I have my own battle to attend to." Ash said, as Max's body suddenly jerked up, very surprised.

* * *

"This will be a one-on-one battle between Calvin of Goldenrod City and Red of Pallet Town. There will be no time limit, and substitutions will not be allowed! Trainers, send out your Pokémon!"

Calvin, seeing how his opponent seemed to be clouded in mystery and darkness, sarcastically said, "Like hiding in the shadows, eh? How about I show you a REAL shadow! Umbreon, Let's go!"

Calvin only seemed to be of 12 years of age, and had spiky golden-brown hair. He was wearing a blue sleeveless 6-pocket vest with a grey shirt beneath it and blue jeans. He also wore blue gloves and a blue and grey hat.

The trainer named Red only smiled, as he threw a pokeball, saying "Pidgeot, May the aura be with you."

"Umbreon, let's start this off with a shadow ball!"

"Pidgeot, send it back with steel wing." Red calmly said.

The shadow ball flew towards Pidgeot, but the majestic bird simply hardened its wing and smacked the ball, sending it back as if playing tennis.

The shadow ball came at Umbreon at a fast speed, smacking into him, doing little damage however, as Umbreon was a dark type.

Calvin frowned as he saw Umbreon covered in a cloud of dust from the shadow ball, making him unable to see where it was.

"Brave bird, please." The calm trainer said, as his Pidgeot simply smiled, having enjoyed its first official battle in a long time.

The Pidgeot sped towards the cloud of dust with amazing speed, surrounded with a weak blue aura.

As Pidgeot flew into the cloud of dust, it cleared, revealing a fainted Umbreon and a proud Pidgeot, who was now fixing its feathers.

* * *

"This will be a one-on-one battle between Max Maple of Petalburg City and James Tantel of Twinleaf town! There will be no time limit and substitutions will not be allowed. Trainers, send out your Pokémon!"

As Max emerged from the pokeball, he felt a little nervous at the upcoming battle. He had never actually battled as a Pokémon before! Luckily, Gardevoir knew his battle style and had taught him the basics of psychic, which he was able to perform due to the fact that the brain in his head was still technically Gardevoir's.

A Gyrados came out of the opponent's pokeball, and roared, scaring Max out of his mind, as intimidate took effect.

Ash sat watching the battle with a smirk on his face. The kid wasn't doing too badly for someone who had never battled before.

'_Maybe I could make some kind of business doing this… having your Pokémon command you in a battle would surely improve the bond.'_ He thought.

'_Nah, it'll need more testing before I could even think about doing that. Although… I should try convincing my old friends to do it; it's quite amusing watching a battle like this.'_

_

* * *

The next day_

"TIME TO TURN MAX BACK!" May shouted, running into Ash's clearing at around 6AM.

Ash, surprised at the sudden sound, jumped up, forming an aura blade and pointed it at the throat that made the sound.

May instantly stopped, scared out of her mind as she saw the blade at her throat, ready to slice her into little pieces.

"I wonder what I could do with your aura? Maybe I could put it into a doll, or maybe a Pokémon, maybe I could use it to increase my own power… the possibilities are endless…" Red said, scaring May even more.

Red smiled, taking a random pokeball from May and throwing it, releasing a Beautifly. Red smirked, as he absorbed the girl's aura, transferring it into the Pokémon's, returning it and taking mild control of the girl's body.

Suddenly, Brock burst into the clearing, and upon seeing May, frowned.

"What were you thinking May! Why would you run ahead like that?" He said.

"May" just looked at him with no expression on her face, and said in a monotone voice, "I am sorry for making you worry. Forgive me. I was only concerned about the wellbeing of my brother."

Brock was confused, but had no time to think about it as "Max" walked into the clearing.

"Max" nodded to Ash and sent out a Gardevoir. Ash simply concentrated before saying, "Done."

Max was relieved to be back in his own body, and returned Gardevoir, before saying, "That was actually a pretty good experience. I learnt what my Pokémon experiences and my Pokémon learnt what I experienced, I'm pretty sure our bond is much closer now."

Max however, looked towards May, and saw that she didn't seem to be excited about Max being back in his own body.

"Hey May, you alright?" He said with a worried tone in his voice.

"May" once again replied in her monotone voice, "I am fine. Thank you for being concerned, Max Maple."

Max instantly knew what was up and looked towards Ash shouting, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MAY?"

Ash rubbed his ears, annoyed at the random loud sound. "Jeeze, calm down kid. I was just doing some testing." He said, before pulling out a pokeball, releasing a very confused Beautifly, who proceeded to tackle Ash, who simply side stepped the attack.

Max looked at the butterflies reaction to Red, and his eyes widened.

"You didn't!" He said.

"I did."

"But… Why?" Max said, annoyed at the trainer once again.

"She woke me up early. She deserved it, just like you did. She should appreciate it though, I'm giving her a once in a lifetime opportunity to know how a Pokémon lives." Red replied, with an uncaring look on his face.

"WHAT? JUST BECAUSE SHE WOKE YOU UP EARLY? TURN HER BACK!" Max shouted, seeing the boys uncaring reaction to what he had done really angered him.

"Whoa, stop shouting. It was just a test. Don't worry, I'll change her back."

He did as he said, as May walked up to him angrily, slapping him on the face so hard he fell to the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" She shouted.

Ash stood up from the ground, slightly angry at the girl's reaction, but not too much seeing as he expected it.

"Ouch. That actually hurt a little. You have a strong palm, baby." Ash said teasingly.

"Hey! Don't call me that!" She shouted, but she blushed slightly.

"Whatever you say, babe." Ash said, clearly enjoying this.

"I SAID SHUT UP!" May shouted, before releasing a huge blast of energy, knocking Ash to the ground.

Red's eyes widened as he lay on the floor in pain. He looked at the angry, but confused girl with a look on interest.

"Very interesting…" He said.

"…What was the HECK was that?" May asked, bewildered at the strange burst of energy she had felt.

"That, baby, was Beautifly's psychic attack." Ash said, his simple words creating so many more questions to be answered.

May, hearing what Red had called her, decided to ignore it, and concentrate on why she had been able to create a psychic attack.

"Why?" She asked, not knowing how else to phrase the thoughts running through her mind.

"Well… My guess is that seeing as your very being was merged with a Pokémon's, some of its powers may have rubbed off on you, babe."

May, finally fed up with what Red was calling her, said with a wink, "Judging by what you keep calling me, I'd say that you're trying to tell me something."

"Maybe I am." Red replied, with a calm, dismissing tone, but anyone could see that he was blushing.

Max, tired of their little conversation, decided to ask Red something.

"So, Red, does that mean I'll be able to use some of Gardevoir's attacks? That would be so cool!"

Red, recovering quickly, replied, "I'm not sure. I'll need to do some more testing, but I'll need some test subjects for that…"

Max and May both smiled and nodded, going to get their friends for some fun.

* * *

**One more thing. I'm going to put up a new poll on my profile, about my next story. I already have a few ideas and its more convenient to put the choices here and just let you choose on the poll.**

**No More Suffering: FurtherShipping (AshxLeaf): Ash's friends have betrayed him, destroying his mind and sense of justice. He is now a infamous legendary hunter, and is slowly building up his collection of legendary Pokemon to summon Arceus and destroy the world he now hates so much. Will a childhood friend, and his only remaining friend, be able to stop his crazy plan before everything in the world is lost?**

**Shattered: AdvancedShipping (AshxMay): (Note: May is kind of like Ash in the sense that she is clueless about love, while Ash isn't) Ash has been showering May with signs of his affection for her throughout his journey, but she remains clueless. When she finally realizes what Ash has been doing, she admits that she does not love him back. Ash is shattered and destroyed, his very will to live taken away from him. What will happen next?**

**The Guardian of the Aura: (AshxIdk): AU, Medieval Period. Ash is an aura guardian, one of the few of his kind left. He lives as a mercenary, crushed after what a certain event, but when a threat emerges, threatening the royal families of each region, will Ash be able to once again rise as an aura guardian to save them?**

**Personally, my favourite is the second, but whatever ;)**

**If you wondering why I'm thinking of my next story so far ahead of time (This story is no where near finished!), its because I need to start brainstorming. The more time I have to jot down ideas, the faster I'll be able to write the second story, and the deeper it will be (Thats the idea, at least)  
**


	8. More Merging

**Hey guys, quite a short chapter today, 1.9k words only =/. I think I'll start to put up a chapter once every two days. Anyways, I'm starting to write a new story (Will still write this one more though, the other is just an idea I had) called "Darkness Itself". Check my profile to find it if your interested.**

**I think I'll replied to the reviews now...**

**lpride21: I'm pretty sure "Garchomp" is still a gible, but I might include it. Also, Personally I hate all Generation V Pokemon so I wont include them, sorry.**

**JNottle: What do you mean by a "competent Ash from the start"? Would you care to elaborate please?**

**LegendsAlmighty: Thanks! But I don't see why you need to tell me to update soon :P I'm pretty much updating once a day and have been since this story started.**

**meselfi: Yeah, I noticed that. I just cant be bothered to fix it xD  
**

* * *

"You can't be serious."

May and Max had just finished telling the story of what happened with Red to the rest of the group. Unsurprisingly, they didn't exactly believe the story.

"If you don't believe us, go see for yourself!" May said.

* * *

"I see you two brought back your friends." Red said, in-between dodging hits from Lucario.

"We did! They don't believe that May used a psychic attack! Can you show them?" Max said.

"I don't see how I can show them when it was May that did it. Didn't you think of getting her to try do it again?" Red said, continuing to train with his Pokémon.

Max, realized his stupid mistake, asked his sister, "Well? Can you?"

"Umm… Let me try!" May said, before closing her eyes and concentrating, trying to unleash another blast of psychic energy.

* * *

Nothing.

The group looked at Red, as if expecting an answer.

Red didn't notice them looking at him, seeing as he was busy dodging punches and kicks from Lucario, but when he realized no one was talking, he told Lucario that that was enough for the day and looked behind him.

"Hmm…? I suppose you're looking for an answer. I suspect it's because you lack training. Pokémon need to train for days, weeks even to master moves, and seeing as you're using Pokémon moves, I suppose you would need to train. Although… with training you could become a serious force to reckon with, you could be just as powerful as an aura-user… That's something to look into, I guess." Red said, while thinking about the ways he could use someone that had powers like that.

"I guess if you guys let me do some study, I'll be able to discover something about that new skill of yours." He added.

"How long would it take?" May asked, not wanting to wait too long before finding out what sort of new powers she had.

"That's hard to say. A quick analysis would take about 5 minutes, but a full, detailed analysis would take about an hour." Red replied.

"WHAT? Only one hour to find out everyone you need to know? How can it be that simple?" Max said, not believing that anyone could find out so much information in such a short period of time.

Ash shrugged, "It's not that hard as a matter of fact. You seem to forget that I have two very powerful psychics with me. However, before I do a full analysis, there is one thing I want to try out. May, please send out your Beautifly. I'm pretty sure you can only be, how can I put it… bonded with one Pokémon."

May nodded, deciding not to ask why, and send out her Beautifly, who looked at May questioningly, still wondering what had happened earlier.

Red's eyes exploded in blue, as he concentrated on May and Beautifly's forms. They both glowed blue as well. Nothing seemed to be happening for a minute or so, but then suddenly, Beautifly slammed into May, but instead of colliding with her, it instead disappeared into her.

May exploded in a flash of blue light, as she began to glow white, in a way similar to evolution. Ash watched as her back erupted in a brilliant, colourful light, and wings identical to Beautifly's formed. She also seemed to shrink quite a lot before finally the glow disappeared and May was revealed, about two-thirds of her original size and with a Beautifly's wings on her back.

Everyone stood there in shock. How could this be possible?

May however, immediately noticing her wings, tested them out, flying into the sky before promptly losing control and smacking into a nearby tree, sliding to the ground while groaning in pain.

Ash just laughed, thinking about what he could do with powers like this. But more importantly, he was thinking if it was the right time to reveal who he was. He really wanted to reveal his identity before further studying the process of Human-Pokémon merging, as he decided to call it, but he still couldn't bring himself to do it.

The others, finally snapping out of their trance, ran up to May, asking if she was alright, while also asking her questions about the merge.

Red, still wanting more answers, walked up to Max and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Max. I want to try another merge, and the only person that comes to mind right now is you. But I'll have to do something that I will need your consent for. I can't merge you with Gardevoir. Well, at least I can't because I'm pretty sure you wouldn't enjoy it, but I can however, change your Gardevoir into a Gallade, and merge you two. That is, if you want to." Ash said.

Max, nearly falling over from excitement, pulled out one of his own pokeballs, and threw it, releasing a Gardevoir. Red concentrated before the Gardevoir seemed to evolve, but instead changed into a Gallade.

"Whoa! How did you do that?" Max shouted.

Everyone else turned around, hearing the sound, and saw Max looking in awe at a very proud looking Gallade.

"It's not that hard. I just manipulated the aura inside your Pokémon to make it change form." Red replied nonchalantly.

"Can you merge us than? The merge thing really seems cool!" Max said, hoping to be able to merge with his Pokémon, just like May had.

Red nodded, repeating the same process he had done with May, but this time Max's head seemed to have a helmet on it, and he had long, green blades on his arms.

"COOL!" Max shouted, before running at a tree, slashing it.

Everyone else in the group seemed to want a merge, but Ash denied them, stating that he wanted to do more study before he did any more merges.

Max, walking up to Red asked him, "If you want to study it so much, why don't you merge yourself? Then you'll have lots of time to study what you can do with that power!"

Ash thought for a moment, wondering if he should. He was certain that it could be reversed, but he was unsure of which Pokémon he would want to merge with. He looked over his Pokémon, and saw Pikachu. The most logical option would be to merge with Pikachu, but then while merged he wouldn't be able to have his buddy by his side, so Pikachu was out of the question.

* * *

Maybe one of his flying Pokémon? The ability to fly would certainly be a boon.

Ash continued looking at his various Pokémon, before seeing Latias and Latios. Of course! They would be the best choice, seeing as they were both powerful and could levitate, which was just as good as flying.

But Latios or Latias, which should he choose? Latios and Ash were like brothers, helping each other in a brotherly sort of way, so it would be kind of awkward to merge with him, but Ash and Latias's bond was beyond that of Latios and Ash's. To Ash, Latias was more than a best friend, more than a sister.

"I guess I will. That is, if my Pokémon agrees as well." Red said finally, making up his mind to do a merge, if only to see how the process was like.

He walked over to Latias, looking at her and saying, "Latias, will you do the merge with me? My bond with you is probably the closer than the bond I have with any other of my Pokémon. Well, besides Pikachu of course." He said, as Pikachu jumped up on his shoulder and rubbed his cheek against Ash with a soft "Chaaa"

Latias nodded, before whizzing of into the sky with glee. When she returned to the ground, Ash once again concentrated, and suddenly he felt a very strange feeling. He felt like his very DNA was being altered, parts of him being stripped and replaced. It didn't hurt, but it certainly felt strange.

To the others, Red didn't seem to be changing all too much. Two red stabilizer-like wings emerged from his back, the eon symbol appeared on his back and chest, and finally, he seemed to lose quite a lot of his body weight.

When the merge finally completed, Ash felt carefree and over-energetic, like he a huge weight had been lifted off him. He could tell that part of Latias's personality had mixed with his, and that would make things quite interesting.

He opened his eyes and saw everyone staring at him.

"So?" Max asked.

"I feel… So… Light and carefree!" Ash shouted, before zooming off into the sky.

Max decided to explain to the group.

"I'm pretty sure that Latias's personality was mixed with his. It happened to me, I feel extremely loyal now, probably how Gallade would feel, and I'm sure it's the same for May."

Everyone looked towards May, who was currently in the process of smelling a flower, while trying to stay stable in the air. She wasn't having much luck, as she constantly fell down.

Ash returned from his little sugar-rush and checked the time.

"Crap! I have a battle on now, I have to go!" He said, concentrating and demerging everyone, which was much faster than merging was.

"I'm pretty sure if you make physical contact with your Pokémon and concentrate hard enough, you'll be able to morph. Anyways, I have to go to my battle now. I'll be here after my battle if you need me"

"We also have our own battles to get to! I nearly forgot! Quick guys, let's go!" Brock shouted, grabbing everyone and pulling them along.

* * *

"This will be a one-on-one battle between Red of Pallet Town and Michael of Lavender Town! There will be no time limit and substitutions are not allowed! Begin the battle!"

"Blaze, lets show them whose boss!" Michael shouted, throwing a red and white orb which released a beam of red aura energy, revealing a Blazekin.

"Charizard, May the aura be with you." Ash said calmly.

"Blazekin! Let's end this quick. Start off with a sky uppercut!" Michael shouted to his Pokémon.

"Charizard, smack it back to the ground with a steel wing, into aerial ace, into seismic toss!"

Charizard's wings began to glow white, before the Pokémon sent them smashing into Blazekin, knocking the poor Pokémon to the ground. But that wasn't all, the flame Pokémon then proceeded to fly towards Blazekin at an amazing speed, before picking it up, doing a few mid-air spins to build momentum, then throwing the blaze Pokémon to the ground with incredible force.

"Blazekin is unable to battle, Red wins!"

Ash sat alone, looking at the moon, thinking about the day's events. He wondered if he could get his friends to help him… If he gave them the power which he now knew he could. Would they help him defeat the threat that threatened to destroy the world?

His friends still didn't know who he was. It was his entire fault as well. He was too scared to tell them, and they surely weren't going to find out themselves.

Then again, he was smart enough to know that single-handedly, he wouldn't be able to defeat the new threat. With his friends and with some training, he was sure they would be able to.

For now, he would have to simply enjoy the tournament.

* * *

**That's all! Next chapter will be 5000-6000 words and will be uploaded on Thursday or Friday. I hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to check out my new story! Bye for now!**


	9. Red's First Challenge

**Hey guys! Sorry for not getting a chapter up earlier, but on Thursday I attempted to write but only managed about 200 words in an hour, and the days after I just didn't feel like it. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll respond to reviews first, I guess.**

**JNottle: That would be pretty sweet, being able to watch a SMART Ash for once, but rewrites of the anime usually don't work/don't get finished.**

**Fire Drastar: Thanks! You have to remember Ash was isolated from civilization for four years, so his social skills won't be that great. I hope there's enough competition in this chapter for you ;). Thanks for the OC's btw and about Gible, I was unsure about whether to put it in the list seeing as it's status listed as "Unknown" on bulbapedia but i'll see what I can do.**

**One last thing I've been needing to say: The story ideas I had were, yes, Kind of stupid, but that's because I didn't really think them through. I just made them up on an impulse, so forgive me.**

**Enjoy!  
**

* * *

"Hey! I think I'm getting the hang of this!"

May and Max had finished their battles and had some spare time on their hands, so naturally they decided to test out their powers. However, it proved to be much harder than they expected, and a few hours on, May still hadn't mastered flying, and Max hadn't even been able to generate any sort of psychic energy.

Of course, that didn't stop them from trying.

Gary and Dawn stood nearby, watching the two. May seemed to be constantly crashing into things, while Max seemed to be concentrating so hard it looked like he had constipation. The two chuckled as May once again smashed into the ground.

Brock had gone back to his room to mope after losing his battle, but truth to be told, most of his friends had expected him to lose first, after all, he was a breeder, not a battler.

Misty and Tracey had gone to get something to eat, leaving Max and May alone to attempt to harness their powers.

The two seemed to actually enjoy the painful torture they were going through, and continued to try with smiles on their faces, laughing to each other as they managed to hurt themselves.

* * *

Sitting around the fire, Ash's Pokémon were quietly talking. Ash however, was once again lost in deep thought. He still was wondering whether he should tell his friends who he really was. They had said themselves that "Ash" was better than he was, and they were true. But Ash was gone, and all that he left behind was a shell.

"You think that, but deep down you know it isn't true. Admit it; you're still the same person, but the old you is simply buried beneath your misery" Latios said, comforting his friend.

Ash looked up into the eyes of Latios, and nodded. He finally made up his decision.

"I'm going to tell them. Now." He said, as he stood up, walking in what he thought was the direction of the town. Pikachu jumped up on his shoulder, mimicking his trainer's look of determination. The rest of his Pokémon looked up, silently cheering him on.

However, the aura of confidence, determination and bravery was instantly shattered, as Latios said, "Err, isn't the city that way?" while pointing in the complete opposite direction from which Ash was walking in.

Everyone in the clearing (Except Latios of course!) facefaulted upon hearing his, as Ash said, "Right! I knew that!" before he spun around, before walking off, once again, in the wrong direction.

At the sight of this, Latios sweatdropped and asked Latias, "Should we tell him?"

Latias giggled and said, "Nah!"

* * *

Ash arrived outside the Pokémon centre where his friends were staying panting, exhausted after he ran in the complete wrong direction, arriving in Viridian city before realizing something was wrong. How did he get there so fast? He got so impossibly lost in the forest, that space and time were warped and he was teleported randomly, arriving in various random places, before Viridian and finally Indigo Plateau.

"Damnit, Latios could've told me I was going the wrong way." He grumbled, as he walked into the Pokémon centre.

After finding out from Nurse Joy which room his friends were staying in, Ash walked up the stairs, finding the room.

He paused at the door for a second, his mind trying to think of an excuse to leave now, but he gathered up his wits and knocked on the door, knowing that if he didn't come clean to his friends now, he might not get the courage to later, or they might find out in another way, possibly ruining any chance he had at them forgiving him for leaving.

Brock sat quietly on his bed, silently thinking to himself, which was a major contrast to the chaos going on around him.

May was chasing Max, shouting something along the lines of "Give it back!" or "I'm going to kill you!"

Misty was performing CPR on Psyduck; trying to get him to cough up the rock he had somehow swallowed. She certainly did not look happy; this was the fifth time today that Psyduck had choked on something.

Dawn was sitting in a corner, crying loudly because she had lost her battle.

Gary and Tracey had mysteriously disappeared.

'_Why does that Red kid seem so familiar? I swear I've seen him somewhere before. First, he seems to get along with our group so easily, like he already knows everyone. Come to think of it, I don't think we told him our names, and yet he knows them. Then, there's that Pikachu on his shoulder, and the fact that most of the Pokémon he has were the same Pokémon Ash had… No… It can't be Ash. But then, why did he so willingly give May and Max that strange power to merge with their Pokémon.'_ Brock thought, trying to figure out who 'Red' was.

The door burst open, surprising everyone in the room, causing them to turn and look at who had opened it. May had even stopped chasing Max, who was now taking advantage of this to get away.

In walked Drew, who a threatening look on his face. Seeing this threatening look, Brock walked in front of them.

"What do you want?" Brock said bluntly.

"Hmph. I just want to speak to May outside, privately, of course." Drew said, obviously ignoring the threatening looks he was getting from the others.

"Not after last time. Get out." Brock replied.

By 'Last time', Brock meant the last time they had met. He claimed that he wanted a friendly chat with the girl, but they were actually just trying to insult her with mentions of 'Ketchum' and "how much of a failure he was" so that she would be too distressed to participate in the Grand Tournament, which, in the end, resulting in May losing to Drew.

Drew smiled, before saying, "I thought you'd say that. I guess I'll just have to get May with force, eh?"

He pulled out a pokeball, and Brock, noticing this, said, "Hah! You think you stand a chance against all of us? There's five of us and only one of you!"

Drew, not even caring, grinned and said, "Sure, but do you have shadow Pokémon?"

Noticing their looks he continued, "I thought not, now let me show you what a REAL Pokémon can do."

* * *

He threw his pokeball, and out came his Roserade, but something looked very wrong about it. Something FELT very wrong about it. It seemed to be radiating darkness, and everyone shivered as they saw it.

Getting over the initial reaction, the group of five pulled out their own pokeballs, sending them out for a fight.

Out came a Crobat, Sceptile, Beautifly, Starmie and Piplup, all of which also shivered upon seeing the 'shadow' Pokémon.

The Roserade jumped in the air, before releasing a devastatingly powerful petal dance, knocking out all the Pokémon in front of it. Drew grinned.

"How is this possible?"

"Heh, that, you don't need to know. I think I'll be taking May outside now, unless you have any more objections?" Drew said.

Max immediately grabbed a pokeball, but before he could throw it, the door burst open once again, as Red walked in, looking beyond angry. If looks could kill, everyone would've died that instant.

Instead, Drew wet his pants as soon as he saw the enraged young adult.

Red walked up to Drew, before grabbing him by the neck, lifting him, and shoving him roughly against the wall.

"I HAVE AN OBJECTION! WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A SHADOW POKÉMON?" He shouted, apparently knowing what a shadow Pokémon actually was. The rodent on his shoulder growled with equal ferocity

Drew stuttered, trying to make out simple words, but he was so scared he couldn't say anything.

His Roserade though, noticing its master was in danger, fired a poison sting at Red's leg, but the stings did nothing, breaking against his skin. Red simply grunted to his Pikachu, who jumped down, knocking Roserade out cold with an iron tail, before promptly jumping back on Red's shoulder.

"Well?" Red said, in a somewhat more controlled tone.

Finally managing to make out words, Drew said, "S-Some man in a trench coat came up to me and asked if I wanted him to make my Pokémon stronger. He said if I agreed, I could finally beat those brats and get what I deserve! Of course I accepted his offer; it was too good to turn down!"

Red growled, taking Roserade's pokeball from Drew, returned the Pokémon and asked Drew, "Got any more shadow Pokémon? I'll return them to you after I purify them, I'm not thief. You can either hand them over so I can purify them, or I can throw you out the window, purify them, and release them into the wild."

Drew burst out of Red's strong grip as he heard this.

"No way! Why would I want them to be purified? I have all powerful Pokémon now, and next time I see these brats, you won't be here to protect them, and I'll get May all to myself!" He shouted, as he ran out the door.

Red sighed, signalling for his Pikachu to go get Drew. Seconds later, as Pikachu ran out the door, Drew came flying back in the room (Courtesy of Pikachu's iron tail), looking more scared than ever.

"Okay! Okay! But you better give my Pokémon back after you do whatever to purify them. I swear, if you steal them, I'll kill you!" Drew said, handing his pokeballs over to Red.

Red raised his eyebrow at the green-haired co-ordinators pathetic threat, but silently took the pokeballs.

* * *

"Ahh Suicune, I have finally cornered you. I admit, you gave me a good chase, but this is where it ends. Garchomp; lets end this quick. Draco Meteor."

Meteors rained from the sky, smashing against the aurora Pokémon and knocking it out instantly, the powerful attack too much for the already exhausted Pokémon.

As the mysterious figure captured Suicune, she looked up in the sky and saw an angry looking phoenix, screaming in fury.

"Ahh. Ho-Oh. I've been waiting for you."

Ho-Oh had come investigating after being unable to sense its servants, and found this human capturing Suicune. A puny human, capturing one of her servants in pathetic human devices? HER SERVANT? A SERVANT OF THE GREAT HO-OH? She could not allow this as she prepared a sacred flame attack.

Leaf grinned.

* * *

"Welcome to the second part of the preliminary rounds of the Tournament of Arceus! Our first battle will be a three-on-three battle between Red of Pallet Town and Avrey of Alamos town! There will be no time limit and substitutions are not allowed! Trainers, begin the battle!" The announcer announced.

Ash looked up at his opponent. The kid looked to be about 16 and was wearing an open black jacket with green flames decorating the bottom and a plain white t-shirt under it. His pants were also black with green flames and he was wearing black and white shoes. Ash had looked up the Pokémon this kid had, and was surprised. He had a Darkrai, and the rest of his Pokémon were very powerful.

'_Finally, a challenge.'_

The crowd, including Ash's old friends, erupted in cheering as Avrey sent out a powerful looking Infernape.

Ash smiled, before calmly sending out his Blastoise.

Avrey hesitated for a moment before shouting, "Come on Infernape! Typing doesn't matter, we'll win this anyways! Let's start off with a mach punch!"

Ash frowned as he saw how fast the Infernape was, before shouting to Blastoise, "Meet it with Hydro-Beam Spin!"

Blastoise withdrew into its before starting a rapid spin, which he then augmented with water blasting out of the holes in his shell, courtesy of hydro pump, before also firing off an ice beam, causing the water to freeze in a magnificent display of power.

Avrey snickered and said, "This aint no contest, fancy moves won't get you anywhere. Infernape, take it down with close combat!"

Avrey then watched in shock as the Blastoise simply smashed into Infernape's fists, breaking through its guard and knocking it back.

Recovering from the initial shock, Avrey quickly took the advantage, "Quick Infernape, while his close hit it with a close combat!"

Infernape, grunting from the heavy hit it had taken, quickly retaliated with a close combat, which Blastoise was unprepared for.

"Blastoise! Are you ok?" Ash said with concern, as he saw his Pokémon take a direct hit. Blastoise nodded and gave him a thumbs up, signifying he was OK to continue.

"Enough fun and games, Blastoise, take it down with rapid fire Hydro-Cannons!" Ash shouted.

Avrey, expecting the hydro cannon attack, shouted to Infernape, "Quick! Get out of the way!" He knew if the attack connected, Infernape would be knocked out.

Infernape tensed its muscles, preparing to jump to the side.

Instead of firing one hydro cannon, however, Blastoise fired multiple concentrated hydro pumps, manipulated into orbs.

Infernape dodged the first one, but let its guard down as the others slammed into it, knocking it to the ground.

Ash grinned and then said, "Blastoise, finish it with a hydro cannon!"

Avrey, seeing there was no point in letting his Pokémon get hurt by an attack he knew it couldn't withstand, so he returned it and said, "I retire Infernape from the battle."

The referee nodded and Ash said, "Good choice. Shows you care about your Pokémon."

Avrey simply smiled and said, "Let's rock, Sceptile!"

"Good luck taking down Sceptile; his never lost a single battle!" Avrey boasted.

"Guess it's time to end your winning streak, eh?" Ash replied, unfazed.

"Enough talking! Sceptile, start off with a quick attack into leaf blade!" Avrey said, confident in his chances of victory.

Sceptile sped towards Blastoise at blistering speeds, before jumping in the air, doing a 360 spin and slamming his blades into Blastoise. Blastoise grabbed one of the blades, but was totally unprepared as the second blade slammed into him.

Avrey grinned, while Ash frowned.

"Finish this with a leaf storm!" Avrey said, knowing the battle was over.

Ash, also realising this, did the same thing Avrey did with his Infernape, he retired Blastoise, saving him the pain of getting hit with the leaf storm attack.

"Charizard, may the aura be with you!" He shouted, throwing a pokeball which released Charizard in a burst of red aura-energy.

Avrey groaned, realising that a Charizard would have a 4x resistance to grass-type attacks, but he didn't back down.

"Charizard, let's take the offensive this time! Speeding Bullet Fire Spin!" He shouted.

Charizard grinned, before unleashing a huge fire spin, and proceeded to fly into the middle of it.

"Crap… Sceptile, quick, charge up a solarbeam as fast as you can and use leaf blade!" Avrey shouted, noticing what Charizard was doing.

Sceptile managed to charge up the solar beam moments before the fire spin hit him, and as he released it, he slammed his leaf blades forwards. Charizard was not out of tricks however, as he spat a huge flamethrower as he collided with Sceptile, creating a colossal explosion in the middle of the battlefield as the whole arena was filled with smoke.

"Charizard/Sceptile!" The two trainers shouted in concern.

As the smoke cleared, both Pokémon were lieing on the ground, defeated.

"I guess you kept your winning streak after all, seeing as that was a draw" Ash said, with a grin on his face. "No-one's come this close to beating me yet."

Avrey only smiled at this, before pulling out his last pokeball.

"It's down to you and me, let's rock, Darkrai!" He shouted, sending out the legendary Pokémon Darkrai.

Ash raised his eyebrow at the impressive sight, as the crowd gasped. A legendary Pokémon! Right in front of them as well! People took out cameras and took as many photos as they could.

Avrey smiled, wondering what Pokémon Ash was going to use to beat his Darkrai, knowing that his opponent had probably known in advance he was going to use a Darkrai.

"Totodile, may the aura be with you!" Ash said, startling the audience.

As Totodile came out of its pokeball, it started dancing. The crowd went silent for a moment, before breaking out in laughter. How was this puny thing going to beat a Darkrai?

Avrey, however, did not underestimate his opponent, knowing that many people lost because they did so. Instead, he quickly said, "Darkrai, use dark void!" knowing that Darkrai had a huge advantage if the enemy was asleep.

Darkrai complied, creating a pit of sorts underneath Totodile, who seemed completely unaffected as he continued dancing energetically.

Darkrai and his trainer both sweatdropped as instead of falling asleep, the Totodile continued to dance around, seemingly enjoying itself in the middle of a serious battle.

Ash grinned, before saying, "For some reason, my Totodile has the 'Vital Spirit' ability, which prevents it from falling asleep! Now Totodile, propel yourself with hydro pump and use bite!"

Avrey, remaining calm, said, "Darkrai, stop it with ice beam!"

Ash, having a temporary burst of energy, did a 360 spin and shouted, "And twirrrrl!" Ash shook his head; he needed to stop acting like Latias sometimes.

Regardless, Totodile did what he said and twirled in mid-air, causing the ice beam to just miss him, before slamming into Darkrai with a powerful bite attack.

Avrey, noticing the Totodile wasn't letting go, said, "Darkrai, get it off with psychic!"

Darkrai tried, but the dark aura coming from Totodile's jaws negated the psychic energy attempting to grab hold.

"Now Totodile, Thrash!"

Totodile starting thrashing about with incredible power, still holding onto Darkrai. Because of this, Darkrai was thrown about, being slammed onto the ground and finally at a wall, where it was finally knocked out.

Avrey, seeing that he had lost, walked up to Ash, shaking his hand and saying, "That was a great battle, Red. You deserved that win. You'll go far, win it for me, Ok?"

Ash grinned and returned the handshake, as the crowd cheered around him.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed that! I won't give a definite time for the next chapter, but I'll get it up some time this week. Tomorrow if you're lucky!**

**Edit: Just realised something, I said this would be 5000-6000 words last chapter. I apologize, I won't set a word limit again seeing as I can't even meet the time limit. Once again, I apologize for the lack of words in this chapter.  
**


	10. The Very Short Chapter

Oops, uploaded wrong chapter

**Sorry guys, this chapter is REALLY short, especially for the time it took to make it (a whole week...) and the fact that its the TENTH CHAPTER WOOT. I wanted a long chapter for the first double-digit but this'll have to do I guess. I kinda got obsessed to Fallout: New Vegas, but I'm going to continue writing, starting from now. I won't set a definite timeframe for the next chapter, but I promise it will be at least 5000 words, because I'm getting depressed at how short my chapters are. Anyways, enjoy this very short chapter!**

**Special mention to splitheart1120 and LegendsAlmighty who have pretty much stayed with me and reviewed through the whole thing so far :)  
**

* * *

"Damn Shadow Pokémon…" Ash grumbled, as he walked through the town looking for trainers to fight to purify the Shadow Pokémon that Drew had. The TOA Committee had given the trainers a day off today, one day before the final preliminaries, which gave Ash the chance he needed to purify Drew's shadow Pokémon.

"_I wonder who performed the Shadow Pokémon process on the fools Pokémon… as far as I know, it can only be done in Orre, and I already shut down Team Cipher with Wes. I'll have to look into this I guess, maybe even give Wes a call. If Shadow Pokémon are back, we're in for some trouble…_" He continued thinking, as he battled random trainers with Drew's overpowered Shadow Pokémon.

"Hey! I thought you said you were going to battle! Send out your Pokémon then!"

The voice snapped Red out of his deep thoughts, and thus he looked up, to see a young boy, around the age of 13, walking up to him, waving in front of his face with an enraged look on his own face.

"Huh…? Oh… Right, Roserade, your turn!" Red said, somewhat annoyed at the fact that the boy was shouting in his face, as he threw a pokeball in the air.

'_Why does this "Red" look, sound and seem so familiar… It just doesn't make sense! He kinda looks like Ash, he acts a little bit like Ash, and he seems to know us like Ash, but he just can't be Ash! Ash is… D-dead! Or is he...? Maybe he isn't! Maybe… but if this "Red" man is Ash, Ash really is dead…' _

Brock, instead of spending his free time wandering around the town aimlessly, had sat down in his tent for some thinking and relaxation (Even if he wasn't even battling in the Tournament anymore).

Max and May had once again gone off into the forest to practice, and bit by bit they were improving. May could now actually fly WITHOUT crashing into trees every minute, and Max could actually form a blade now – powerful enough to… cut a twig in two.

Misty and Dawn had gone off wandering in the town, and Gary and Tracey had disappeared without a trace… again. Brock absentmindedly wondered where they kept wandering off to, but didn't give it much thought. Both of them were weird in their own ways.

'_If it really is Ash, I wonder what changed him. Heh, I don't think I'll find out if it really is him though. Doesn't look like he'd tell us, and that's assuming he IS Ash. Would be kinda embarrassing if he wasn't. Guess there's nothing we can do for now.'_

"Hey Max, look what I can do!"  
May, who had gotten Max's attention, then proceeded to fly into the air, unleashing a sparkle of powder using a mix of silver wind and psychic, which exploded after a few seconds, May's small amount of experience not able to sustain the attack.

"Hah! Of course you'd start off with practicing flashy moves, just like a true co-ordinator! Let me show you what I can do!"

Max then ran at a thick tree, blades on his arms glowing, and swung his blades at it, which resulted in them hitting the tree and… bouncing off it, showing that they clearly didn't have enough cutting power to cut through.

Seeing this, Max sweatdropped and said, "Umm… Must be the tree! Haha! Yes, of course, the tree was too hard!"

May also sweatdropped upon hearing this, and said, "Err, riiight. Anyways, I think we should get back to the Pokémon centre now, it's almost time for lunch!"

Max stopped trying (And failing) to convince himself that the tree was the cause of all his failures the moment he heard these words.

"Lunch? What are we standing around here waiting for then, if there's lunch? LET'S GO!" Max shouted, running off into the distance.

May sighed and said, "His just like Ash… running off in the completely wrong direction the moment he hears it's time to eat…"

'_Left, right, right, left, duck, left, right, right, duck, left…'_

Ash, having long since purified Drew's shadow Pokémon, had been doing some training. He had set up a complex setup of ropes, which were tied to logs, and when he pushed a log they would start moving back and forth, forcing him to step aside to dodge them. Sir Aaron had taught him this method of training through a vision, not long after he had started walking the path of the aura.

Ash's mind drifted, as he let his bodies instincts take over, and he thought of all the things he had experienced, all the times he had cheated death, the few friends he had made – Wes, for example.

Wes… He and Wes had fought together to take down Team Cipher, the people responsible for the Shadow Process, the process where a Pokémon's heart is closed to increase its powers.

This process pretty much killed the very things that make a Pokémon and Team Cipher were planning to do evil things with it, so naturally a hero had to step in to stop them, in this case two heroes.

Ash and Wes had fought many battles together. They fought together smoothly, as if they were one. Their Pokémon's attacks would flow fluidly from one to another, and if they themselves were fighting, they were in perfect sync, performing acts that most would find impossible, like ducking to avoid a blow that you couldn't possible have seen from your companion, who's attack would then strike your opponent, who probably was about to strike a blow on you.

How was this possible? It wasn't too hard actually; Ash and Wes were both skilled in aura, so naturally the two would be able to work well together. When people first began using aura, the Aura Guardians, or Aura Users, would work together with each other to defeat their opponents, making them seem all but invincible.

"Welcome to the final battle of the preliminary rounds! It seems like this battle is going to be intense, judging by the serious looks on the two competitors faces! On this side, we have Red, a trainer from Pallet who has dominated all the battles his been through. On the other side, we have Takuto, the champion of the Sinnoh elite four! Takuto has once again revealed his two signature Pokémon – Darkrai and Latios, but Red had already defeated a Darkrai, so this should be a very exciting battle!

* * *

**Like I said, no definite time for the next chapter, but it'll be at least 5000 words! If you're wondering why Takuto is the champion, well, I mean, did you expect him to NOT beat the elite four? He practically beat everyone else with only two Pokemon! Also, I use Takuto (His Japanese name) instead of Tobias (His "dub" name) because I haven't actually watched the episode with him in it, and the first time I heard about him I heard his Japanese name. **


	11. Red vs Takuto! Legend vs Legend!

**Ok, well, it's not exactly 5000 words, but it's close enough to what I wanted. I'm still trying to get chapters up faster, not as fast as it used to be (1 chapter a day), but around 2 chapters a week is my goal. Doing that is kinda hard seeing as exams are coming up soon, but I'll try!**

**Enjoy!  
**

* * *

Red looked at his opponent from his side on the arena, seeing the look of determination on his face, and even the slight overconfidence. The man had been trained by the league to remove overconfidence, but old habits die hard.

As Red studied his opponent, his opponent did the same, feeling a vague feeling of recognition. Had he battled this man before? Possibly, he had battled many people – and beaten them all, he added as an afterthought.

The two trainer locked gazes, watching each other carefully, preparing for the intense battle ahead. The referee, noticing that the two were ready, started to signal the beginning of the battle.

"This will be a three-on-three Pokémon battle between Red of Pallet Town and Takuto of Alamos town! There will be no time limit and substitutions are not allowed! Trainers, send out your Pokémon!"

"Pikachu, it's your turn buddy!" Red shouted, as Pikachu jumped from his shoulder, onto the battlefield, with a look of fierce determination to win in his eyes.

Takuto smiled before saying, "Celebi, I am requesting your assistance!"

Red, of course, was stunned by this. His trainer record hadn't shown Celebi, and even if he had Celebi, where was she?

Suddenly, as if in answer to Red's question, a time portal tore itself onto the battlefield on Takuto's side, as Celebi flew out of it, a smile on her face.

"B-But… How? I thought Celebi wouldn't be captured, and she certainly did not show up on your trainer record! Nice to see you again by the way, Celebi." Red said, still stunned by the fact that Takuto was using Celebi.

"It's quite simple actually. I know how good you are, and I didn't want to take any risks, so I asked Celebi if she would help me out here, seeing as she owes me a favour." Takuto replied, clearly disinterested and looking forward to the battle. "May we continue?"

Red simply nodded and turned to Pikachu, before saying, "Pikachu, let's go, S technique!"

Pikachu then seemingly disappeared, before appearing a few metres closer to Celebi, disappearing, moving again, disappearing, but then moving BACKWARDS, completely confusing the spectators.

Takuto, however, was not fooled, knowing that Pikachu was probably using a combination of Quick attack and Agility to seemingly shimmer out of existence to confuse his opponent. "Celebi, Future Sight, followed up with Psychic!"

Celebi did exactly that, with the Future Sight predicting an attack, but with the side effect of finding out exactly where Pikachu was going to move next. Celebi then proceeded to grab Pikachu with a powerful Psychic attack, suspending the poor, confused rodent in mid-air, then proceeding to fling him into the air.

Ash however, was prepared for a Psychic attack, and he and Pikachu had trained to get rid of it from their weaknesses.

"Pikachu, Slam Shock-Tail!"

Takuto was unable to respond to this, seeing as he had no idea what would happen, so all he could do was to wait and be ready.

Pikachu spun in mid-air using the momentum of an iron tail attack, before shooting down towards the stadium with a powerful slam attack, before disappearing from sight, startling Celebi, and reappearing behind her. Celebi turned around, but was not fast enough, as Pikachu slammed his now electrically charged tail into Celebi's face, sending her flying into the ground.

"Sorry!" Red shouted, with a sincere tone in his voice. Red had had a run in with Celebi, and it wasn't in his nature to hurt friends, but he had on other choice.

As Pikachu landed gracefully onto the floor, he convulsed in pain as he was hit by the violent Future Sight attack. It didn't do as much damage as the Slam Shock-Tail, but it still hurt nonetheless.

"Press forward, Celebi, use hyper beam while Pikachu is on the floor!" Takuto shouted, finally saying something after watching the combo Pikachu pulled off with a stunned look on his face, clearly not expecting his Pokémon to be hit so easily.

Celebi grinned, charging up a hyper beam, while Pikachu lay on the floor, still recovering from the Psychic attack.

She fired the beam, and with a tremendous BOOM, the whole arena was clouded with black smoke, the audience expecting the Pikachu to have stood no chance against the powerful attack.

Red however, knew better and simply stood there smiling, before shouting, "Pikachu, Volt tackle!"

Takuto was wondering why Red was still calling orders to his Pokémon when it clearly was either fainted or exhausted from the damage. However, completely contrasting his thoughts, Pikachu came running out of the smoke, surrounded by lightning, as he chanted, "PikaPikaPikaPikaPika". To Takuto, it sounded like a chant of doom, knowing Celebi wouldn't be able to move and would have to take the attack head-on, which would damage Celebi considerably.

Pikachu slammed into Celebi with enormous force, knocking her down to the ground, twitching with electricity flowing through her.

"But… How? That hyper beam should've been a direct hit, how could Pikachu come out unscathed?" Takuto said, with a tone of sheer disbelief in his voice.

"Protect." Red said, smirking as he saw Takuto's eyes widen as the man realized his fatal flaw – overconfidence.

"Pikachu, thunder, let's finish this!"

Pikachu nodded, his cheeks sparking as he shot a powerful bolt of electricity towards Celebi, which was joined by an even stronger bolt of electricity from the sky.

Takuto was desperately looking for a way out of this, when he suddenly thought of an idea.

"Quick Celebi, double team!" He shouted, hoping Celebi had recovered enough by now to hear him.

Celebi groaned in pain, but complied, splitting into many more copies, which then proceeded to surround Pikachu, whose bolt had only managed to take down one illusion. Even surrounded, Pikachu didn't look scared in the slightest.

Red also didn't look scared, but instead looked happy, as if one of his plans had gone perfectly. "Ahh, perfect, you've played right into my hand! Pikachu, use counter shield, let's finish this battle!"

Takuto's eyes widened again at hearing the unfamiliar move, and as such could only watch with surprise as Pikachu spun around on his back, emitting lightning around him, taking down all the illusions and shocking the real one.

Celebi fell to the ground, swirls for eyes, as she warped back through time to a place where she could rest, her debt repaid.

Red smiled, about to congratulate and thank Pikachu, when Pikachu also fell over, fainted. Red gasped in shock, unable to comprehend why Pikachu had fainted.

Takuto however, smiled knowingly. "Don't think you're the only smart one here. A little bit before, when the battlefield was obscured with smoke, I decided to play it safe and psychically told Celebi to use a perish song, just in case Pikachu made it out."

Red nodded, acknowledging his opponents smart strategy, as he walked towards the field to pick up his old buddy, who looked disheartened at the fact that he had also fainted, even though he had beaten a legendary Pokémon. Red muttered some words of encouragement to Pikachu, before returning to his place on the field, pulling out a Pokeball and enlarging it.

Takuto smiled once again, seeing the close bond the two shared, as he pulled out and enlarged his own Pokeball.

The referee, however, was looking forward to returning to his room to watch random, generic, mind-rotting cartoons, and decided to hurry along the match.

"Trainers, please send out your second Pokémon!"

Red threw his Pokeball onto the field, along with Takuto's, as two Pokémon burst out of the balls, rapidly changing from a beam of aura, into a Pokémon.

On Takuto's side, the aura changed into a shape similar to that of a scrunched up towel, with a large white crest-like thing coming out of its head, and a red crest around its neck. It was pitch black – the colour of the night.

On Red's side came a green, lizard-like figure, which had a narrow head with two crests on top and a huge, bushy, spiky tail, along with two sharp leaves on each arm, resembling blades. Along its back were six yellow seeds pods.

The nightmare Pokémon looked at its opponent, looking forwards to a fair rematch, and the forest Pokémon was doing the same.

Takuto, wanting to take the initiative in this battle, quickly shouted, "Darkrai, end this quickly with dark void!"

Red however, was expecting this, and even as the dark energy made its way towards Sceptile, intending to incapacitate it by putting it to sleep, he stayed calm.

"Sceptile, stop it with Sunny Day!" Red said, knowing that the light would cancel out the darkness of the Dark Void, and even if Sceptile was put to sleep, he would wake up instantly due to the internal clock inside most grass-type Pokémon.

Sceptile fired and orb of light from his seeds, which flew into the sky, illuminating the whole arena with harsh sunlight. The Dark Void seemed to cower in the light, and Red could swear he could hear it shriek in pain as it was banished by the sunlight.

Takuto frowned, knowing the battle was going to be much harder seeing as he couldn't put Sceptile to sleep. If he could find a way to take down the sunny day though maybe he could…

Takuto was lost in thought, trying to think of a way to stop the sunny day, while Sceptile was charging at Darkrai with a mix of Quick Attack and Leaf Blade. Darkrai was worried, looking at Takuto, as he didn't know what to do. Should he evade attack? Parry the attack?

Takuto's eyes lit up, as he snapped his fingers and started, "Darkrai Rain Da-"before noticing the predicament. He was too late however, and Darkrai was knocked back by a powerful dual leaf blade.

Darkrai, pushed to the edge of the arena, grunted in pain, before countering with an instinctive dark pulse, which knocked Sceptile back a little, but ultimately didn't do too much lasting damage.

Now Takuto really was worried, knowing that there was a very real chance of him losing this battle. Losing two in a row would be bad for his image, but he never ran out of ideas.

"Darkrai, Nasty Plot!" He shouted, hoping to boost Darkrai's Special Attack enough for it to do some real damage to the very resistant Sceptile.

Ash grunted, facing towards Sceptile, before simply saying, "Boost up."

Sceptile nodded, closing his eyes as he performed a dual Swords dance and Agility attack, giving him a boost only otherwise obtainable by two dragon dances.

Red nodded in the direction of Takuto, before saying, "I think it's time to end this."

Takuto nodded in response, "Indeed it is."

Together, they shouted towards their Pokémon, "Sceptile/Darkrai, Leaf Blade/Dark Pulse!"

Sceptile began running towards Darkrai at an incredible speed, raising his two blades, while Darkrai prepared a Dark pulse.

Moments before Darkrai released the Dark Pulse, Red shouted, "Sceptile, Agility-Detect!"

Sceptile seemed to teleport behind Darkrai, making a show of dodging the Dark Pulse… which then proceeded to hit him a moment late, sending him flying towards the wall.

Red was actually surprised for the first time. He hadn't expected this to happen, but then again, it made him remember how fun Pokémon battles were and why he used to participate in them.

That didn't mean he didn't have a counter though, "Sceptile, Leaf Storm, full power! Put everything you have into one last effort, please!"

Sceptile complied, firing hundreds, maybe thousands of leaves towards the startled Darkrai, who was directly hit by them and knocked out. Moments later, Sceptile slammed into the wall of the arena, thus being knocked out as well.

The two trainers returned their Pokémon, knowing fully well the next battle would determine who would proceed past the preliminary rounds.

* * *

"Ahh Ho-oh. Tracking down your servants to summon you took a while, but here you are, in all your magnificence. Ho-oh looked quite proud for a moment, before remembered who this person was, and firing a sacred fire towards her.

The girl just stood there and waved her hand, extinguishing the oxygen the fire needed to burn, thus extinguishing it.

Ho-oh looked in awe at the girl – No other human had managed to do THAT before. However, that didn't excuse her for the act of capturing her servants and threatening her, and she sped towards the girl, spinning into a drill peck, intending to kill her.

Leaf just waved her hand again, stopping Ho-oh in mid-air, as the great phoenix squawked in surprise.

"Hey, that wasn't very nice, was it?" She said, a smirk on her face."

She then simply flicked her wrist, and Ho-oh was sent crashing to the floor. She walked up to the phoenix, and said, "Just surrender, it'll make it easier for both of us."

Ho-oh, sensing that the girl's intentions were not pure, but instead, were tainted with evil, roared in anger, sending a powerful Sacred Fire attack at the girl. At point blank range, Ho-oh was sure that the attack would kill the girl, as it engulfed her completely.

Instead, the fire cleared, revealing Leaf standing there, completely untouched by the fire.

"Was that meant to hurt?" She said, grinning, before unleashing a huge psychic attack, utterly disabling Ho-oh and sending her onto the ground writhing in extreme pain, as Leaf walked up to her and tapped her on the head with a Pokeball.

And thus Ho-oh and her servants fell.

* * *

"Welcome back folks, to the final battle of the preliminary rounds, and what a battle it's turning out to be! Both trainers are down two Pokémon, and Takuto has amazingly shown us TWO powerful Legendary Pokémon, while Red has shown us Pokémon that are equally as strong, being able to draw even with the legends! This truly is a battle of the legends, and if what I'm expecting is right, the real battle has just begun!"

"Well, well, well. Isn't that Takuto boy the person who defeated Ash in the semi-finals of the Sinnoh league? I guess Ash is finally going to get his revenge." Professor Oak said quietly, watching the television screen which was currently showing the final battle of the Tournament of Arceus preliminaries.

Red threw his Pokeball, with a very dramatic and impressive pose, which ended with the Pokeball flying onto the field, falling onto the floor with an anti-climactic "Clunk".

Red muttered a curse under his breath, as moments later the air shimmer above the Pokeball, revealing an impressive red and white dragon-like Pokémon, Latias.

"Oops. Guess I forgot she wasn't in her Pokeball." he explained to everyone else, most of whom sweatdropped upon hearing this.

"Riiiiight," Takuto said, with a confused look on his face. The boy in front of him seemed so serious, yet here he was, like a little kid who had made a mistake.

Nonetheless, he threw out his own Pokeball, which exploded in flames as it burst open, making a far more climatic and dramatic entrance than Red's, as a similar dragon-like Pokémon came out of the Pokeball, except it was blue and white, instead of red and white. It was Latios.

The two eon twins looked at each other, both of them seeing their own counterpart. They looked at each other with a look of interest in their eyes, until they prepared for the upcoming battle and tensed into battle positions.

"No using recover, alright? Otherwise the battle will drag on for far too long." Red asked, mentally preparing himself for the upcoming battle.

"Agreed. Why don't you begin?" Takuto replied, also preparing himself.

Red nodded, before saying, "Your mistake."

Suddenly, Latias disappeared from sight and began speeding towards Latios, before seeming to stop in front of Latios, who then proceeded to fire an energy ball at Takuto's command, which slammed into Latias, creating a cloud of smoke.

Latias, however, was behind Latios, and the one that he had hit was a substitute. Latias used the moment she had to fire a powerful dragon pulse at Latios' back, causing him to fall to the ground in pain.

Takuto raised his eyebrow in surprise, clearly not expecting this. "Telepathy eh? Not even I have managed to be able communicate to Latios through telepathy yet. I take my hat off to you."

Red merely acknowledged the compliment with a smile, before Latias charged towards the fallen Latios, charging up a shadow claw.

"Latios, safeguard!" Takuto shouted, as Latios was surrounded by a blue bubble-like barrier, upon which Latias hit, but couldn't penetrate.

"Now retaliate with Psychic!"

Latios' eyes glowed blue, as a similar blue outline surrounded Latias, immobilizing her, as Latios prepared to throw her to the ground.

Latias' claws began to glow blackish, as she thrust them out in a show of strength and willpower, breaking out of the psychic attack. She then sped towards the surprised Latios, slashing him across the chest with the shadow claw.

Latios was not out, however, and retaliated with a powerful close range dragonbreath attack, damaging Latias, but not as bad as Latios currently was.

Then, Latios, using a combination of Dragon Dance, Substitute and Double Team created at least three rings of copies surrounding Latias. The rings constantly moved back and forth making anyone who looked at it dizzy.

Latias however, was unfazed, and released tentacle-like beams of light, which impaled all of the copies, hitting the real one as well.

However, due to the dragon dance, Latios recovered quickly, charging at Latias with a powered up dragon claw, which struck her directly in the chest, doing a significant amount of damage thanks to Dragon Dance.

Latias fired a point blank mist ball at Latios, which exploded, covering the arena in… well… mist. Incidentally, Latios felt his powers being drained by the mist, but could see no way out of the mist.

"Latios, use hyper beam!" Takuto shouted, hoping that Latios would be able to detect Latias, even in the psychically charged mist, which served to both drain and hinder Latios' psychic powers.

Latios, however, managed to find Latias and fire a hyper beam at her. Latias retaliated by firing a hyper beam of her own, culminating in a huge explosion in the middle of the battlefield.

After what seemed like an eternity, the smoke cleared, revealing… Latios on the floor, fainted, with Latias seemingly unhurt from the final attack.

"B-But how?" Takuto said, clearly stunned by the fact that he had lost. HIM, the champion of Sinnoh, had lost to a nobody!

Red, finally snapping out of his trance, replied by saying, "Simple. Firstly, Latios' hyper beam was weakened by the mist ball, so Latias' was more powerful, resulting in Latios taking more damage from the two attacks. Secondly, Latias also used safeguard to negate most of the damage, before hitting Latios in the back with a shadow claw."

Takuto dropped his head, "I lost… I had three legendary Pokémon fighting for me… and I still lost…"

"Indeed you did. You still don't understand that even though a Pokémon is legendary, it can still be defeated, just like any other Pokémon." Red said, before walking out of the arena, the cheering crowd behind him.

* * *

As Red walked out of the arena, Takuto continued to stand there, and the longer he stood there, with the crowd cheering his opponent and ignoring or pitying him, the more his anger grew.

As his anger peaked, he raised his head, the fire of vengeance in his eyes.

"I will get my revenge… Be warned, Red, I am coming for you…" He said quietly, swearing to himself that he'd never give up until he got his revenge. But how could he get it?

"_I can help you get that revenge… I can help you kill Red."_

_

* * *

_'_Counter shield… Counter shield… Where have I heard that move before? I swear I've heard it before, it sounds so familiar! Is it one of Max's moves…? No… May's? Nah… maybe it's one of Dawn's! I don't think so… Wait a second… Isn't that… Ash's move… Of course! But then how does Red know it? And how come he seems so familiar… Is Ash back?'_ Brock thought, once again going into one of his philosophical trances to think. Everyone was either training, or in Tracey and Gary's case, had mysteriously disappeared… again.

'_Nah… I'm probably overreacting. Maybe he saw Ash's Pikachu use the move on TV sometime and decided to use it. Yeah, that must be it.'_ He thought, deciding to drop the issue before he spent too long thinking about it.

Just as he thought that, he heard a gasp of astonishment from outside his window.

As Brock walked out of the Pokémon centre and into the clearing behind it, he too gasped with astonishment. On the ground in front of Max and May, was an Articuno, a very injured Articuno, but an Articuno nonetheless.

"W-What's an Articuno doing here?" Brock asked.

"I don't know! It just flew in here, and collapsed." May replied, slightly stuttering as she did.

"Wow! An Articuno! I'm going to catch it, and then I'll be able to win the tournament! Yeah, it's already weakened so all I have to do is catch it!" Max shouted, pulling a Pokeball off his belt.

Max threw the ball at the injured Pokémon, but before it could hit the Articuno, it was enveloped by a blue outlined, and then exploded, the bits and pieces littering the floor.

"I wouldn't do that."

The voice was calm, but imposing. The owner of the voice was soon discovered as a figure walked out from the trees, an Espeon by her side.

"Leaf! What are you doing here?" Max shouted, angry because Leaf had stopped him from catching a legendary Pokémon.

"Claiming my reward." She said, just as calm as before.

Max stood there dumbly, not knowing what she meant. May, however, saved him from embarrassment from saying, "What? No! You can't take Articuno like you captured Entei! I won't let you!"

She then fired a burst of Psychic energy at Leaf, trying to smash her face into the ground, but for some reason, the energy backfired, blowing her backwards as she clutched her head, which felt like it was about to explode.

"_I have powers you could only dream of, little girl. Do not challenge me. I can crush your mind with a single thought; destroy everything that is you with a flick of my wrist. Don't tempt me.", _said a voice in her head. Every word made May's head throb painfully, as if every word was a hammer strike driving a nail into her head.

As Max saw May writhing in pain on the ground, he noticed Leaf seemed to be concentrating entirely on May. Taking the opportunity, Max ran at the girl, forming two blades on his two arms, and slashed forwards at her face.

Leaf simply flicked her wrist in his direction, not even turning to look at him as he flew backwards, before slamming into a tree and falling unconscious.

Brock snapped out of his trance, and looked towards the girl.

"I may not have any powers like they do, but I have my Pokémon!" He shouted, throwing his Pokeball at her, "Forretress, Explosion!"

After the dual bug/steel Pokémon burst out of its Pokeball, it started spinning and flying towards Leaf, preparing to blow up.

"Aww, did Reddy decide you weren't good enough to get powers? Poor boy, if only you knew his secret." Leaf said in a teasing tone, before the bagworm Pokémon exploded next to her, covering the area with thick, black smoke.

Smoke which she cleared with a single thought, before psychically throwing the Pokémon at Brock, which then slammed into him, with the surprised look still on his face, pushing both of them onto the wall of the Pokémon centre, knocking them out cold.

"Pathetic. Oh well, time to claim my prize." Leaf said, taking out a pokeball and capturing Articuno, before walking back into the forest.

* * *

A few minutes later, Ash ran into the clearing. Seeing three of his "friends" sprawled on the floor unconscious he angrily said, "Damnit! I was too late!"

Ash had come running to the clearing after hearing (And seeing) a large explosion. Seeing the ice on the floor, he had figured Leaf had captured another legendary Pokémon, namely Articuno.

"Damnit… How am I going to explain this to Arceus?"

* * *

**Random note: My ultimate goal is to get a 10k word chapter.**


	12. Authors noteChapter 12 preview

**Hello everyone. Sorry I haven't written a chapter in a while, but I got a legitimate excuse this time! Honest! I have exams (Finals) so I've had to study (or rather, not study). Also, I have been reading Ri2's "Brave New World" and have actually learned a lot from it. My writing style has changed a little, but hopefully its for the best. I'm planning to make this chapter a little longer than most (After exams of course), but for now, here's a sneak preview.**

**Oh, I'll answer the reviews first. Also, if you have a question, feel free to ask it. Even if it gives away something I MIGHT just give you a hint ;)**

**...Wow... That's a lot of reviews I missed. OK, I'll go through the questions, one by one.**

**JNottle: You'll see one eventually, but not for quite a while.**

**Nightlove2: How's this for dramatic? (Read sneak peak below first, I mean...)**

**tom the dragon: Chill. I uploaded the wrong chapter. Hah, and my friend read the whole thing before he realised it was a repeat xD**

**Ok, Maybe it wasn't THAT much, but anyways, commenting on them all would take too much time. If you have any questions, I'll probably answer them. **

* * *

"So Red. What are you going to do? Your family-"she pointed to Latias and Latios, with her other hand glowing threateningly with psychic power, "Or you friends-"She then pointed to May, who was next to Max, who was next to Brock, who was next to Ash, who- never mind, you get the point.

Ash averted his gaze, unwilling to look into the malicious girl's eyes as he said, "…Take the girl."

The group standing next to him gasped in shock, but Leaf simply nodded, "I see you have gotten over your sentimental side, knowing it would only keep you back. Too bad you insist on doing the right thing, or we could've been friends. Oh wait… We were friends… Heh… Heh…" she said, as the group of teenagers/kids looked at her with a look that was a mix of confusion, shock and humour.

Leaf then proceeded to psychically throw the unconscious Latios and Latias in Ash's direction, who immediately began giving them medical care, while bringing May over to her side.

"NO! YOU MONSTER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHY DID YOU SURRENDER TO HER AND JUST WILLINGLY GIVE UP MY SISTER LIKE THAT?" Max shouted, as he ran towards Ash, his fists striking the teenagers back, but doing little to no damage to Ash, or at least he didn't show it.

"…Sacrifices must be made Max. For the greater good." Ash simply said, before returning to treating Latios and Latias.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SACRIFICES AND THE GREATER GOOD? I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THAT SHIT! NOW THAT BITCH HAS MY SISTER!" Max shouted, unable to comprehend the fact that the person who had 'sacrificed' his sister had been a person he had not so long ago nearly called a friend.

Leaf, speaking up, said, "Seeing as poor Red is too busy to answer you, little boy, I might as well. You see, Latios and Latias are far greater help to Red than your pathetic sister, so like any good leader; Red saved the ones that might help tip the favour in the battle. I'm surprised you didn't know though! I would've expected you to know what your hero would've done. Shame on you." Leaf said, with an obviously fake tone of disapproval and disappointment.

"Huh? What do you mean my hero?" Max said, while his friends, who had been trying to comfort him, sighed as he finally stopped shouting. "I mean, HUH? WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY HERO?" His friends groaned and covered their ears.

"Oh? So you still don't know? Well you're obviously not the brightest bulb in the bucket (Did that even make sense?). That crying boy over there-"

"I'M NOT CRYING!" Red shouted, defensively, but anyone could see the indications in his eyes that obviously showed, he had, indeed, been crying.

"-Whatever, like I was saying, that crying boy over there is actually… ASH KETCHUM! DUN DUN DUN! PLOT TWIST."

* * *

**One last thing before I sign off. **

**The next chapter probably won't be here for at least, 1-2 weeks. I have finals, and nothing takes more importance than finals (Besides gaming, living, breathing, eating, not-dieing-from-mutant-cows-from-mars, gaming, sleeping, actually remembering the crap in the finals, gaming and well... you get the point... Anyways, I'll try write it soon after the finals but don't expect too much.**

**Oh and I'll be running a poll on my profile. It's basically splitting up the story into 2. The question will be: Should May DIE IN A HORRIBLE AND GRUESOME FASHION WHICH WILL PROBABLY CAUSE YOU LESS STRONG WILLED READERS TO CRAP YOUR PANTS, or should she just be imprisoned (BOOOORING). Either way, she will return, albeit not in the way you expect (No zombies though!). Difference is, for the first way, the story will probably change to M, which means I'll try make it all dark and stuff with people dieing and heroes failing but if you choose the second choice, it'll stay as a happy friendly children's story where somehow everyone gets beat up but doesn't die. Oh wait, they might still die, nevermind. Hope I didn't sound too biased there, but anyways, Ima end this really long authors note now. **

**Yeah this'll be deleted after the real chapter is out.**

**Probably.**

**Most likely.**

**Bye...  
**


	13. Goodbye, for now!

**As you all are probably aware, I haven't posted a single chapter for at least a month and a half now. This is mainly because of the issues stated in the preview of this chapter, and because I lost my computer for 2 weeks, leaving me unable to work.**

**Onto the main point I want to make. I'm planning to scrap this story. As of now, its a complete mess with side-plots, too many characters and various of crap going through it and my head. It simply isn't up to standard. I might rewrite it sometime, but I don't know. This WAS my first story, so hopefully for my second, I'll be able to plan it out better than I did this one.  
**

**I will be running a poll for the two stories I plan to write next. I know my other polls have not influenced my actions at all, but I assure you, this one will. I will be giving two questions - Which story I should write next, and whether or not I should attempt a rewrite of this one in the near future. **

**As for the stories, right now they are vague ideas running through my head, but once the poll is over, I will start planning the story and write out the events that will happen, BEFORE beginning, as a lack of planning was what ruined the previous one (AKA this one). **

**I hope you guys will read my next story, but seeing as how badly I made this one, I won't be surprised if a lot of you stop reading. Regardless, here are the two stories have been circling my head for quite some time now. They are just IDEAS so have no real plot to them, just the few things I thought of.  
**

**1. Basically somewhat the opposite of what this stories plot was meant to be. Ash is horribly betrayed and vows to destroy the world and stuff. **

**2. Some sort of Medieval AU with a Sword-wielding-aura-using Ash and some various other elements.**

**Don't expect anything from me for a while, because even after the poll I'll need to do some planning. If you wish to know when the new story will be started, add me to your Author Alerts. I'll see you all when I do, so goodbye for now!**

**This chapter is incomplete. I was planning to finish it, but made up my decision to scrap the story. I might as well put this chapter up anyways, but like I said, it's incomplete.  
**

* * *

"Now that she has captured the beasts, Ho-oh AND Articuno, it shouldn't take long for her to find Zapdos, Moltres and thus Lugia. The birds are far more loyal than those arrogant beasts. She probably already found Lugia by now." Ash said, kneeling before an image of Arceus. "Which is bad." He added as an afterthought.

"Bad indeed. If you cannot stop her, I'm afraid that all our efforts up to now will have been in vain. Since the world's gonna blow up and stuff. Which would be bad." An imposing voice boomed, seeming to neither be speaking with a voice, nor speaking psychically.

"Hmph. Not like this world can get any worse." Ash replied, with a tone in his voice that sounded like he really believed what he said.

"No. I suppose not. Either way, remain undercover and only attempt to stop our enemy if you think you see an opening. If you don't, play it safe and stay down." The voice boomed again.

"Now. Paul, report. What is your progress on finding the location of Celebi?" The voice said, turning its projected attention of a figure kneeling next to Ash.

"Attempts to locate the whereabouts of Celebi have so far been unsuccessful. We have absolutely no idea where to look, so I'm going to have to call this an impossible mission. Celebi would be in any time frame and any place." Paul said.

"Hmm? Celebi? I saw Celebi battling with a boy name Takuto at the tournament. She was just helping him out though. If you want to find Celebi, I suggest you start with him."

"Very well. Paul, track down the location of Celebi. Surge, assist Ash with taking "Her" down." The voice boomed once more, with a commanding voice none of the three would ever disobey.

The projection faded away into nothing, leaving the three figures of Ash, Paul and Lt. Surge alone in the darkness.

"Urgh… Crap… Where the hell am I?"

Brock sat up, looking around the white room, attempting to find out exactly where he was. He looked down and saw that he was sitting on what looked to be a hospital bed, and wore plain white clothes, so he came to the conclusion that he was, in fact, in a hospital.

"You're in the Pokémon centre Brock. Just like us." Came the voice on the bed next to him, which sounded tired, like whoever owned the voice had just been taking a nap and had been rudely awakened; which was true, actually.

Brock groaned and looked towards the source of the voice, seeing May and Max (On different beds of course…) looking towards him. "Urgh my hea-"He started, before being cut off by Max.

"Yeah, yeah, you head and back and legs and arms and neck and feet and hands and some parts of your body we don't even want to hear hurt and are sore, and are probably causing you immense agony and other shit right now." He said, clearly disinterested in what Brock had started to say.

"Huh? Actually, I was going to say, 'Urgh my head… Feels better than its felt in ages! What happened?'" Brock said, not noticing the fact that Max was TOTALLY DISINTERESTED IN WHAT HE WAS SAYING.

They both naturally sweatdropped upon hearing that, but were still quite pissed at Brock waking them up from a nap after they got completely destroyed by a kid that wasn't that much older than they were.

Seeing as Max had turned his head away from Brock and had gone back to sleep, May decided she might as well tell Brock what he wanted to know, if to get him to shut up and to stop distracting him than for any other reason.

"That Leaf girl completely thrashed us again. Oh and she captured the legendary Articuno. And she did this all in less than 5 minutes. From what I was told, you were lying with your back to the Poke centre wall, multiple parts of your spine fractured. May and I got off easier though, seeing as being temporarily merged with a Pokémon gives us the endurance and well… Bone strength of one as well." May said, with a look on her face that said she wasn't happy with the way things had turned out, but then again, who would be?

"This will be a battle between Megan Rayme of Veilstone City and Red of Pallet Town. It will be a three on three battle with no time limit, and substitutions are not allowed. Trainers, send out your Pokemon!"

Ash watched his opponent from across the field, studying her to see if he could find a weakness to exploit. She had long, wavy, brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans, black fingerless gloves and white sneakers. She was also quite tall and wiry.

Eventually, he simply nodded before reaching for a Pokeball, while she did the same. They both threw out their Pokeballs at the same time, each one opening up as a burst of red aura-energy came out, before flying back to its owners hands.

On Megan's side, was a Pokémon that looked like a mix between a bird and a cloud. It was quite large, and about half of it seemed to be either made of, or shrouded in clouds.

On Ash's side, was his Heracross, a blue beetle with a powerful horn. It flapped its wings eagerly, clearly wanting to fight.

"Right. Begin the battle!" The referee announced, sweeping his flags.

"Lutaria, start off with a Featherdance!"

The Altaria glowed for a second, before unleashing a large amount of sharp feathers towards Heracross, with frightening speed.

Ash, however, was not impressed.

"Heracross, Close combat!"

The main focus for Heracross's training had been in speed, as Ash deemed its attack to be more than satisfactory already, and thus he was confident that it could stop all the feathers, dead in their tracks.

Heracross took a deep breath, before leaving with a lightning fast series of claw strikes, horn sweeps, wing beats and kicks. As the feathers stopped and fell to the ground, it was apparent that Heracross has stopped every single feather in its tracks.

Megan, seeing this, was stunned. How could ANY Pokémon be that fast? She shook her head and placed it to the back of her mind as she ordered another attack.

As she looked back onto the battlefield, however, she noticed that during the attack, Heracross had been slowly moving forwards, pushing AGAINST the feathers, and now was flying towards the Altaria with frightening speed, charging up a megahorn.

"Quick, Lutaria, pull up a safeguard!" She shouted quickly, seeing that she had no time to make a counterattack, and resorted to defence instead.

As Heracross slammed into the safeguard barrier, the barrier seemed to ripple and waver, but it held firm and the Single horn Pokémon had to cut off its attack, slightly disoriented from the collision.

"Now quick, follow up with a heat wave!" Megan shouted, trying to take advantage of Heracross's temporary disorientation.

The Altaria flapped her wings forcefully, sending out a wave of superheated air towards the disoriented Heracross, slamming into it and sending it back towards the ground with a sickening thud.

Heracross stood back up, a determined look on its face. It appeared to have a few scratches and bruises, but was otherwise was fine.

"Heracross, use Aerial Ace to get up there!" Ash shouted, knowing that the Altaria probably wouldn't be able to endure the attack he had planned.

"Lutaria, try knocking it out of the sky with dragon pulse!" Megan shouted, trying to keep the advantage of the skies, but she knew it probably wouldn't hit – she herself could barely see any trace of the Heracross as it moved.

Heracross seemed to stop in front of the Altaria, and Lutaria responded by striking with a steel wing of its own accord, but the attack did nothing and just made "Heracross" fade away.

"Huh? What's goin- Oh no! Lutaria, behind you!" Megan said, at first not knowing what was happening, but then seeing Heracross behind the Altaria – it had probably used the Aerial Ace to leave an impression in the air.

The Altaria turned around, just in time to be slammed with a brutal Brick Break which sent it flying down to the ground, slamming into the ground and causing a cloud of dust to arise from the impact zone.

As the dust cleared, it was obvious to the referee that Altaria could no longer battle.

"Altaria is unable to battle! Heracross wins this round. Send out your next Pokémon!"

Megan was disappointed with the loss – But not angry. Regardless, she pushed her feelings away and pulled out her next Pokeball, throwing it onto the field.

"Frez, Dominate!"

The red energy from the Pokeball manifested into a Pokémon that looked somewhat like a cross between a snowman and a Christmas tree. Its body and head looked like a snowman, but it had green tips on its hands and feet giving it a slight similarity to a Christmas tree.

"Frez, start off with an ice punch!"

The Pokémon obeyed, running towards Heracross before pulling its glowing hand back and swinging it forwards in a brutal looking punch.

Ash gave no order to dodge the attack, however, and thus Heracross stood strong against it, taking a brutal hit to the stomach. He knew his master had a good reason for having him take the hit, so he didn't complain.

The very moment that Heracross took the punch, Ash shouted, "Heracross, now! Use counter!"

Heracross ignored the pain he was in and smiled, before charging up energy and hitting the Abomasnow with a glowing punch twice the strength of the one he had been hit with. The attack would do some serious damage, maybe even ending the battle now.

Megan gasped as she saw the serious damage that the attack did, and silently begged her Pokémon to get back up.

The Abomasnow pushed its strength, and with a roar, stood back up, ready to fight some more.

As Ash left the arena, he decided to go for a relaxing walk through the forest before returning to training. Naturally, something more was bound to happen, seeing as if it didn't, I wouldn't be writing this… would I? … Aaaanyways…

After walking a fair distance into the forest, Ash's aura sensors went off, alerting him to movement nearby. He tuned in his senses and saw the aura that was nearby. It was an aura he did NOT want to see.

"Aww crap. I hope she doesn't notice Me.", Was the only thing Ash said before diving into the nearby bushes and shielding his mind from any psychic interference.

Luckily, She did not, and instead continued walking through the forest into the nearby clearing, where, naturally, she was met by the group of Brock, May, Max, Misty, Dawn, Gary and Tracey (Yes, Gary and Tracey had finally come back from… wherever the hell they went.), who were all holding out their Pokeballs with a menacing look on their faces.

"How the hell did you guys find me here?" Leaf said, clearly surprised at the chance encounter. After all, the forest was HUGE and the chance of her meeting ANYONE, let alone these people, was next to zero.

"Actually, we don't actually know ourselves… But we're going to beat you and take you down for… Doing whatever you did!" Brock said; trying to be threatening but obviously failing as Leaf didn't seem to be intimidated in the slightest.

"Riiiight. And what makes you think you can actually pull that off?" Leaf replied, more surprised at the fact that they had distracted her walk, than angry at the fact that they wanted to, basically, beat her up and stuff.

Insert witty conversation here

Insert not-so-epic battle scene here

"So Red. What are you going to do? Your family-"she pointed to Latias and Latios, with her other hand glowing threateningly with psychic power, "Or you friends-"She then pointed to May, who was next to Max, who was next to Brock, who was next to Ash, who- never mind, you get the point.

Ash averted his gaze, unwilling to look into the malicious girl's eyes as he said, "…Take the girl."

The group standing next to him gasped in shock, but Leaf simply nodded, "I see you have gotten over your sentimental side, knowing it would only keep you back. Too bad you insist on doing the right thing, or we could've been friends. Oh wait… We were friends… Heh… Heh…" she said, as the group of teenagers/kids looked at her with a look that was a mix of confusion, shock and humour.

Leaf then proceeded to psychically throw the unconscious Latios and Latias in Ash's direction, who immediately began giving them medical care, while bringing May over to her side.

"NO! YOU MONSTER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHY DID YOU SURRENDER TO HER AND JUST WILLINGLY GIVE UP MY SISTER LIKE THAT?" Max shouted, as he ran towards Ash, his fists striking the teenagers back, but doing little to no damage to Ash, or at least he didn't show it.

"…Sacrifices must be made Max. For the greater good." Ash simply said, before returning to treating Latios and Latias.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SACRIFICES AND THE GREATER GOOD? I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THAT SHIT! NOW THAT BITCH HAS MY SISTER!" Max shouted, unable to comprehend the fact that the person who had 'sacrificed' his sister had been a person he had not so long ago nearly called a friend.

Leaf, speaking up, said, "Seeing as poor Red is too busy to answer you, little boy, I might as well. You see, Latios and Latias are far greater help to Red than your pathetic sister, so like any good leader; Red saved the ones that might help tip the favour in the battle. I'm surprised you didn't know though! I would've expected you to know what your hero would've done. Shame on you." Leaf said, with an obviously fake tone of disapproval and disappointment.

"Huh? What do you mean my hero?" Max said, while his friends, who had been trying to comfort him, sighed as he finally stopped shouting. "I mean, HUH? WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY HERO?" His friends groaned and covered their ears.

"Oh? So you still don't know? Well you're obviously not the brightest bulb in the bucket (Did that even make sense?). That crying boy over there-"

"I'M NOT CRYING!" Red shouted, defensively, but anyone could see the indications in his eyes that obviously showed, he had, indeed, been crying.

"-Whatever, like I was saying, that crying boy over there is actually… ASH KETCHUM! DUN DUN DUN! PLOT TWIST."


	14. I'm back!

**That's right, I'm back! It's been… What? 8 months? I doubt many people even remember me anymore, but with a lack of things to do and a rekindling of my writing spirit, I have decided to revamp this story, and continue writing it. I believe I cancelled it because of I thought it was complete rubbish, but after rereading it I have decided it still has hope of being rekindled into a fiery inferno! Over the next few days, I will be editing the entire story, fixing grammar errors and things that are inconsistent with the overall plot I will be crafting this time around. I'd love a review, even if you're just saying "Welcome back!" just to see who still remembers this :). I'll be putting up a chapter either on Thursday or Friday.**

**One more thing I nearly forgot - I'm looking for a beta reader to help improve the quality of my work! If you're a beta reader, feel free to PM me, and I'll check out your beta profile.**


	15. Final chapter! I promise!

**Hello again, I know I shouldn't be making chapters without any story to them, but this is the last time I'll do it, I swear! Anyways, this story will be revised in an entirely new story, called, "The Chronicles of Arceus, Book 1: Genesis". As you can probably guess from the name, it will be much deeper than the story was previously. I hope most of you will join me in my new story, and forgive me for making another chapter with no story! :)**

**-Espeon Ftw**


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